grant shapps there.eir debate on the bill extending the brexit deadline which was passed in the commons on wednesday night. it requires the prime minister to write to the eu asking for an extension until the end of january if there's no fresh deal, or parliament has not agreed to accept a no deal exit by 19 0ctober. meanwhile, peers had been having a battle of their own, as brexiteers tried to use a series of votes to take up time in an attempt to stop the bill ever getting to the wicket in the lords. in the end, they backed down, accepting it would be debated. labour's lord rooker spoke first. the prime minister's timetable means we are in no real position, whatever the business arrangements for monday, to ask the commons to think again on this bill. it amounts to almost a national emergency in terms of legislation. he is taking back control from parliament in action, rather than an empty rhetoric. so i applaud... will the noble lady to give way, please? she has talked about the coalition of people who

at the same time, what grant shapps also wrote today was that the chairman of hs2 is of the view thatt scheme are also substantially undervalued, but we have not heard a lot about that. so it might be that at some point we will hear more about the benefits to the economy of hs2, but certainly, at the moment, this looks like something which will play heavily into the hands of critics and make it more likely that if the government does want to cancel the project when the view is completed later in the year, it will have the fa cts later in the year, it will have the facts and figures to do it with. our top story this lunchtime: conservative backbenchers are joining forces with opposition parties to try to seize control of parliament and prevent a no—deal brexit. prince harry launches a new initiative to make travel greener. coming up in the sport in the next 15 minutes on bbc news, we'll have the latest from flushing meadows where rafa nadal looks like the man to beat at the us open. he is into the quarterfinals. health officials say hundreds of patients are missing out on life—saving t

, our transport team and oui’ grant shapps, our transport team and our railways team, and to see whate could do to support it. in my view, it is... leeds, by comparison, to most european cities, is not well provided for with mass transit. itv? good afternoon, prime minister. you have five weeks left to get a better deal. can you update us on what you think is the latest probability of finding an agreement that the dup can get behind? secondly, you called david cameron a girly swot, are you worried what he might call you on his upcoming memoir? laughter first of all, on where we are with brexit, i think people do deserve to know what is going on. we are working incredibly hard to get a deal. there is the rough shape of a deal. there is the rough shape of a deal to be done, as some of you may have seen, i have myself been to talk to various other eu leaders, particularly in germany, in france and in ireland, where we made a good deal of progress. i am seeing the president of the commission and the chief negotiator michel barnier, on monday. we will talk about the ideas we have been work

the transport secretary grant shapps has said the government will look at whether bonuses paid to thomascovered through the insolvency process. there has been growing anger at the amount paid to executives in the years before the travel operator's collapse. a huge operation is currently under way to repatriate around 150,000 british holidaymakers booked with thomas cook. sainsbury‘s is to close another 70 argos shops and move them inside its supermarkets. it will also close up to 15 supermarkets and 40 convenience stores. the company says the closures are part of a plan to reduce costs by £500 million over five years. now on bbc news sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: can uruguay believe it? the youngest team at the rugby world cup stun the flying fijians. we'll have a round up of the action from serie a as inter go top. there's no world number one spot for pliskova as she loses in wuhan. hello and thanks forjoining us. day six of the rugby world cup produced the first big upset of this year's tournament in japan. uruguay

we were just hearing there from grant shapps who said he did considerfinancial grant shapps who saidusiness, we were very supportive of every step that could have been taken to find a way to prevent what has happened now. we were calling for every step to be taken. we are deeply concerned that not a sufficient concentration was made on what would be needed. money is being paid now, both to repatriate people, but also, there will be redundancy payments, compensation. because this has not been handled right, and in different parts of the world, it's not like this. thomas cook has a subsidiary in germany, they are in the process of looking at a temporary support in order to try and find a way free. today, would just want to make sure that the thomas cook workers are paid, number one. and everyone who is involved and can release money to do that, the administrators, whether the government can't abort, anything that can do that — that is our absolute priority. afterwards, we have to look back and say what could have to look back and say what could have been done, what can we do to prevent

the transport secretary grant shapps. borisjohnson had no role whatsoever in awarding a grant to a firm led by us businesswomen jennifer arcuri. a review has been launched in figure this year into mrs arcuri's trading company, hacker house. he insisted it had been open, transparent and a competitive process. it follows newspaper revelations about the prime minister's friendship with mrs arcuri when the pm was london mayor. asking an urgent question, a liberal democrat wanted to know if there was a conflict of interest. mr speaker, the fact we are in the commons today is the prime minister has been shown to ride roughshod over the laws of this land. it would indeed be disappointing if we were to find the prime minister has form in bending the rules for personal or political gain. minister! thank you, mr speaker. i want to start by saying that the prime minister and his staff have absolutely no role in the award of this grant, and i suspect i will be saying that a number of times, but it will remain the case. he dismissed su

the transport secretary, grant shapps, has said the government will look at whether bonuses paid to thomasen growing anger at the tens of millions of pounds paid to executives before the travel operator's collapse. a huge operation is currently repatriating 150,000 british travellers. our transport correspondent tom burridge has been hearing from a former thomas cook staff member. my my name is betty knight. i was cabin crew for thomas cook airlines for 12 yea rs. crew for thomas cook airlines for 12 years. our management seemed to have disappeared off into the sunset with millions and millions of pounds will stop and while all of our lovely passengers and customers have been helped by the cea, who have done an incredible job, helped by the cea, who have done an incrediblejob, and helped by the cea, who have done an incredible job, and they have all been assisted, our cabin crew, members of our cabin team have been stuck without even a word, without a phone call, in really dire circumstances. and there is sympathy from those who, days ago, where their customers, holidaymakers brought back

transport secretary grant shapps has said the government macular look of bonuses paid to thomas cooks. there's been growing anger over the amount paid to executives in the years before the collapse. an operation is under way to repatriate around 150,000 british holiday—makers booked with thomas cook. details have been released in the united states of the telephone call at the centre of moves to impeach president trump. democrats triggered the process — by which a president can be removed from office — following accusations he asked his ukrainian counterpart to investigate a leading democrat rival in return for hundreds of millions of dollars of us aid. mr trump has denied any wrongdoing and has called the inquiry a witchhunt. 0ur north america editorjon sopel has the latest. the ukrainian president isn't normally a star of un week. he's not top of the bill. but volodymyr zelensky‘s conversation back in july with the world's most powerful man has put him in the spotlight. because this call could determine the fate of the us president. donald trump, who now faces an impeachment inquiry

we will leave that statement therefrom grant shapps, but hearing if you we re grant shapps, but hearingfew moments ago, the transport secretary saying that the government has decided to spend £250 million to rescue the travel company and he said that would risk throwing good money after bad pay the cost of the repatriation. he wasjustifying the repatriation. he wasjustifying the decision not to bail out thomas cookin the decision not to bail out thomas cook in those closing hours before the company went into administration. we will keep an eye on that debate for you but as you will know there is plenty of other business here at westminster this afternoon because they have been fierce exchanges during the first session of common sense yesterday. the supreme court ruling that the decision to suspend parliament was unlawful. the government's most senior legal adviser has faced criticism from mps about the move, but he insisted the suspension of parliament was done in good faith and his legal advice had been sound. jet—lagged courtesy of a night over the atlantic, winded courtesy of the sup

the transport secretary, grant shapps, has said the government will look at whether bonuses paid to thomas british travellers. 0ur transport correspondent tom burridge has been hearing from a former thomas cook staff member. my name is betty knight. i was cabin crew for thomas cook airlines for 12 years. our management seemed to have disappeared off into the sunset with millions and millions of pounds, and while all of our lovely passengers and customers have been helped by the caa, who have done an incrediblejob, and they‘ve all been assisted, our cabin crew, members of our cabin team have been stuck without even a word, without a phone call in really dire circumstances. and there is sympathy from those, who days ago, were their customers. holiday—makers brought back on government flights into bristol today. stressful. but they‘ve got no jobs. the staff? yes. so i‘m more concerned for them, really, than us. at least we‘ve got a home. sad, really, after all these years, isn't it? i must admit. but what can we do? the directors took all the money. there is £20 million of bonuses... those hu

the transport minister grant shapps, has already been talking to the media today.n to be smooth sailing, he's warned that this is a much, much bigger effort than that which had to be undertaken after the colla pse which had to be undertaken after the collapse of monarch airways. do you agree with that assessment? yes, it is more challenging, the numbers of passengers abroad or greater and the geographical spread of the resorts as greater as well. we are doing everything we can, we've got over 40 planes and ouraim everything we can, we've got over 40 planes and our aim is to get back passengers who are currently overseas as close as possible to their originally planned arrival date back in the uk. the website, has all the details of those flights for viewers who are on holiday at the moment and are waking up to this news, we would ask them to look at the website. but be really clear that the repatriation ever that we've got underway will bring people home, as simon colder said, we would encourage people to enjoy their holiday but do keep an eye on the website becaus

the secretary of state for transport, secretary grant shapps.make a statement about the steps the government has been taking to support those affected by the colla pse to support those affected by the collapse of thomas cook, in particular, the 150,000 passengers left a b roa d particular, the 150,000 passengers left abroad without a fight back. and also the 9000 people here who have lost their jobs and also the 9000 people here who have lost theirjobs in the uk. this isa have lost theirjobs in the uk. this is a very sad situation, with all parties considering options to avoid how this company can not be put into administration. ultimately, thomas cook and its directors took the decision themselves to place this company into insolvency proceedings and ceased trading at 2am on monday the 23rd of september. i recognise this is a very distressing situation for all those involved, i'd like to ensure members of this house that the comment is committed to supporting those affected, including by providing repatriation flights free of charge to all of t

grant shapps is the first transport secretary to have a plane. get that! goodness me.egway. i think he would have mentioned it because he likes talking about novel transport. i have a suspicion he would have heard. now that mps are back and they are sitting, what are they planning to do exactly? they have got the benn act and the law that the prime minister has to act foran extension if there is no deal agreed before mid—october. do they do another one? i asked the party leader exactly this yesterday, what was the plan and there was this guffaw of laughter followed by, when the ball lands, we will kick it. in which accent? that would rather give it away. adam and katya, what do you think people on the other side of the channel are making of all of this palaver? all of this anger. i had about 50 coffees in brussels this morning, alljittery like this, it doesn't mean that i have any information, as does katya, so, what do you make of it? the feeling here and across the capital really is, there is no way, like, no way, that a deal is going to get done by mid—october. so,

s transport minister grant shapps says that he thinks that it was the shift in the tourism industry from booking holidays in shops booking online the has had an impact thomas cook has been saying for months as it's been putting out these profit warnings that the bronx is an uncertainty of a brac said was stopping people to take me in the u.k. from booking holidays abroad but regardless of what was the reason behind this the bigger thing now is getting people back home who are overseas the way is launching its biggest peacetime repatriation mission when monica airlines went bust in 2017 that cost about 50000000 pounds this is going to cost 100000000 the government things to bring people home there are 150000 brits broad's that need to be repatriated many more thousands of foreign nationals who are going to be brought back to their countries as well this is a huge operation. it is also going to send reverberations around the global tourism industry as we heard from thomas cook c.e.o. just then there are hotel years in countries like. turkey greece except who are going to have big holes in

the transport secretary, grant shapps, told mps it would have been wrong for the government to have bailedat no government would want to lose a i78—year—old famous british iconic name, and once i hear people say, why don't you just put the money in, the answer is, because it, we would have to do is open the books and realised that if you've got a 1.7 billion debt, if you lost one point 5,000,000,006 months alone, if you've than issued another profit warning, this is entirely different, i'm afraid, from the condor situation, which was a fundamentally profitable airline, and itjust would not be responsible to throw good money after bad, and still be back here and probably a very short period of time, offering there's bailout in order to get people home, not to bail out the company. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is... borisjohnson has been defending himself in parliament, which resumed sitting today. he accused the opposition of running to the courts to avoid a general election. a united nations report has warned that climate change is devastating the world

the transport secretary, grant shapps, has been speaking to the bbc this morning and says he consideredld step in to help the company. it is certainly something i looked very carefully at, because obviously a travel company with a 178 year history, household name, everyone would love it to succeed and survive. in the end, there was a huge amount of debt. £1.7 billion of debt in the company. they have not really kept pace with the times where people booked so many things online and match holidays and travel and cars and everything together. so there were real systemic problems there. we felt if money was put into it, something the government would not usually do for a travel company anyway, we would still have to repatriate people so it was not a goen repatriate people so it was not a goer. we can talk now to jeremy, who has holidays but with thomas cook, and his wife has been working for working for them for 20 years and he joins us now from elford in london. thank you forjoining us. as a family you have got a lot at stake. tell us about your wife. she has been working for thomas cook f

transport secretary, grant shapps, joins us now. thank you forjoining us.ny that still had quite a package holiday set—up, which had gone somewhat out of fashion. putting aside the fact that the british government is not in the business of running travel companies, actually i think the problem was that it possibly could have been only a matter of weeks before we would have been right back where we are today. the company was looking for £250 million of the port and itjust didn‘t seem like the whole thing was going to stack up, i‘m afraid. didn‘t seem like the whole thing was going to stack up, i'm afraid. john mcdonnell on this programme is that the government should have done more to intervene, stabilise the situation and allow a longer term plan to develop. what is your response? it is a nice idea. u nfortu nately response? it is a nice idea. unfortunately he doesn‘t have the fa cts unfortunately he doesn‘t have the facts and figures. i still figured that the weekend suggesting it would cost £600 million to repatriate people and while we don‘t know the exa

the transport secretary grant shapps has been giving an update on how the operation is going.ld hand back their bonuses? i know the business secretary has asked for a very urgent quickly progress investigation of all of that, the situation that has led to this insolvency so i know that is being looked into but for today, my interest is making sure we get this huge repatriate programme, everyone getting back to the country i've checked in on the details with the emergency cobra meeting this afternoon and we are on track so far. can you provide reassurances for members of staff who have lost theirjobs who fear for members of staff who have lost their jobs who fear they for members of staff who have lost theirjobs who fear they may not be paid for the previous month of work? the insolvency practice will be on the straightaway and making sure the correct rules are followed. 0bviously correct rules are followed. obviously a very tragic day for people who have worked for thomas cook, a company with a very long history and track record but i want to make sure that we get people back

some of today's other news — the transport secretary, grant shapps, has confirmed that hs2 — the newr — cannot be delivered within the current budget, while the first stage in a written statement to parliament, mr shapps said "significant concerns" had been raised about the scheme since the budget was established. let's now speak to our business correspondent theo leggett. the whole project has a question over it? the whole project has had a question over it for some time, and in fact last month the government commissioned a far—reaching cross— party review commissioned a far—reaching cross—party review aimed at finding the information to decide whether it should be go or no—go on this hugely ambitious scheme, which for those who are not completely aware will connect london to birmingham first of all and then onto manchester and leeds in a second phase. the budget of the project has risen before and has now risen again, and according to figures which came from alan cook the chairman of hs2 limited, the cost has risen from £62 billion to between 81 and £88 billion, and the first phase

the transport secretary, grant shapps, defended the move on the today programme.for a very short period of time. and then we would have been back in the position of needing to repatriate people in any case. the problem the company had, as i think people realise, systemic issues to do with the world travel which had changed away from high street shops to everyone looking online and putting these things together, had £1.7 billion of debt and putting aside that governments aren't typically in the business of running travel companies and the like, itjust was not, as i've heard suggested, a case of setting this money in, reorganising somehow and hoping it would all work. so what went wrong? the company blames a series of problems for its dwindling profits — including political unrest in holiday destinations like turkey, and last summer's heatwaves. this is how bad its finances were. the operator reported a staggering £1.5 billion loss for the first half of this year. theo leggett offers other explanations. it's a 178—year—old company, it was founded for temperance holi