at stormont was in the deep freeze for three years.ictims of historical abuse. what did he do for you as a group? immediately he came in to his post, the first day we met him, we knew he was a different person entirely. he had a caring and kind attitudes about him, he was personable. he smiled a lot with us, even when i said to him, you know, i hope you are not going to be like your predecessors. he kept repeating the same rhetoric about it being a devolved matter. he was a different kettle of fish, and i trusted him from that first day, and i said this man is different. it was his personable attitude, his kind demeanour. he was normal. he wasn't given to that officialdom that we got from other official figures. he stepped in and even where our own government in northern ireland refused to deliver for victims, who have waited a lifetime forjustice. the fall of stormont meant that we had to languish for another three yea rs, had to languish for another three years, and two of his predecessors refused to do anything. they hadn't got the

the man who saved stormont could not save his own job. own job. just five weeks agojulian smith challenged politicians to bring back devolved government. we have never ignored the issues are difficult and that reaching agreement with the easy, but now it's decision time. that characteristically straight talking worked. the northern ireland parties returned to the power—sharing table. when boris johnson visited a few days later he congratulated his minister. he has done a greatjob and he certainly has a bright future. mr smith had differences with the prime minister, not least over brexit. this morning he was trying to hold on. not least over brexit. this morning he was trying to hold onlj not least over brexit. this morning he was trying to hold on. i have enjoyed serving the people of northern ireland. there is a lot more to do. there has been unusual praise for the former northern ireland secretary. holders of the job do not tend to be popular but julian smith has generated real respect for what he has achieved here. the stormont first

the man who saved stormont could not save his own job.cians to bring back devolved government. we have never ignored the issues are difficult and that reaching agreement would be easy, but now it's decision time. that characteristically straight talking worked. the northern ireland parties returned to the power—sharing table. when borisjohnson visited a few days later he congratulated his minister. he has done a great job and he certainly has a bright future. but mr smith had differences with the prime minister, not least over brexit. this morning he was trying to hold on. i have enjoyed serving the people of northern ireland. there is a lot more to do. there has been unusual praise for the former northern ireland secretary after his sacking. holders of the job do not tend to be popular but julian smith has generated real respect for what he has achieved here. the stormont first minister arlene foster of the democratic unionist party said his dedication to the role was incredible. the irish prime minister described mr smith as one of brit

might he risk damaging the power—sharing progress that has been made with stormont?ose who is in the cabinet. i have enjoyed serving the people of northern ireland, there is more to do but it is up to the prime minister and that is his responsibility to choose the cabinet he wants. it is great serving in it, but it is always the prime minister's call. he will have company on the backbenches, theresa villiers has been sacked too, and departed with an almost biblical reflection. and the housing minister esther mcvey is gone too, commenting that she had been relieved of her duties. sticking around, the foreign secretary dominic raab, as is the home secretary priti patel, and michael gove as cabinet office minister. there is a big new cabinetjob for this man, alok sharma. he will be business set quick terry —— secretary and run an event on the climate. this reshuffle is still a work in progress. stay tuned. good advice because i have got more news with you because we are just hearing that the right honourable oliver dowden is going to be the secretary of media and sport.

might he risk damaging the power—sharing progress that has been made with stormont?e minister can choose who is in the cabinet. i have enjoyed serving the people of northern ireland, there is more to do but it is up to the prime minister and that is his responsibility to choose the cabinet he wants. it is great serving on it, but it is always the prime minister's call. he will have company on the backbenches, theresa villiers has been sacked too, and departed with an almost biblical reflection. and the housing minister esther mcvey is gone too, commenting that she had been relieved of her duties. sticking around, the foreign secretary dominic raab, as is the home secretary priti patel, and michael gove as cabinet office minister. there is a big new cabinet job for this man, alok sharma. this reshuffle is still a work in progress. stay tuned. mrjavid's departure comes less than a month before the budget. our business editor, simon jack, is here. a new boss at the treasury, what difference will that make? we heard earlier this is a concentration of power in number ten,

but the man who saved stormont couldn't save his own job.llenged politicians to bring back devolution. we have never ignored the issues are difficult and that reaching agreement would be easy, but now is decision time. that characteristic straight talking worked — the local parties returned to the power—sharing table, but when boris johnson visited a few days later, he congratulated his minister. he has done a great job and he certainly has a bright future. but mr smith had differences with the prime minister, not least over brexit. this morning he was trying to hold on. i enjoy serving the people of northern ireland, we have done a lot of really good stuff. there's a lot more to do. after his sacking, there's been an unusual chorus of political praise for the former northern ireland secretary. holders of the job don't tend to be popular, butjulian smith has generated real respect for what he as achieved here. the stormont first minister, arlene fosters of democratic unionist party said his dedication to the role was incredible. irish nation

do you think it might risk damaging the power—sharing progress that's been made with stormont?ister has to choose who's in the cabinet and who serves. i enjoy serving the people of northern ireland. we've done a lot of really good stuff, there's a lot more to do, but it's up to the prime minister and that is the responsibility he has to choose the cabinet that he wants, and it's great serving in it, but it's always the prime minister of the day's call. he'll have company on the backbenches — environment secretary theresa villiers has been sacked, too, and departed with an almost biblical reflection — "what the prime minister giveth, the prime minister taketh away," she said. and the housing minister, esther mcvey, is a goner, too, commenting that she had been "relieved of her duties". sticking around, though, the foreign secretary, dominic raab, as is the home secretary, priti patel, and michael gove as cabinet office minister. and there's a big new cabinetjob for this man, alok sharma, who will be business secretary and run a crucial summit on climate change the uk is hosting

northern ireland secretary, julian smith, who oversaw the restoration of devolved government at stormontday was the deadliest day of the outbreak so far. the four contenders for the labour leadership have set out why they think they should succeed jeremy corbyn. sir keir starmer, lisa nandy, rebecca long—bailey and emily thornberry debated how they could revive labour's fortunes, during a special hustings programme on the victoria derbyshire programme this morning. sir keir starmer has been criticised for pushing labour towards a remain position and costing it the votes of leave supporters. he argued that events have moved on to the next stage of the brexit process. remain v leave is over now, we've left, so to some extent, i think, for us in the labour party, we need to make sure we don't carry this divide, because it's split families, it's split our party. we have left now. we need to move on. but what we can't do now is say, brexit is over, because there's nothing johnson wants more than for us to not look at what he's doing, because he's made loads of promises about brexit that he's

up the one who managed to get stormont up and running.t that surprised. boris johnson made clear many times that he owes against vexatious court cases going against vexatious court cases going against veterans who serving northern ireland. boris johnson against veterans who serving northern ireland. borisjohnson is against these veterans having to go through courts. and julian smith, so i've heard, the problem with him was that in exchange for getting stormont open running, he agreed to allow these vexatious trials to continue so i think that it's not surprising that boris johnson continue so i think that it's not surprising that borisjohnson got rid of him. it's also worth bearing in mind, he's our remainder. he wasn't that quick to support boris johnson's deal sol wasn't that quick to support boris johnson's deal so i think most of them have been punished for that. but i think forjulian smith, it's because of his veterans thing which borisjohnson has made a personal mission to keep these veterans safe. he's been removed. he's been asked

stormont people around the prime minister, it probably is job done. stormont is rerunning.he manifesto commitments that the prime minister wants to see delivered. and also will be judged on in five years in the next election. i'm not sure that politicians in northern ireland would think thejob politicians in northern ireland would think the job is done. politicians in northern ireland would think thejob is done. but politicians in northern ireland would think the job is done. but we will move on because there is a lot to talk about. we saw will move on because there is a lot to talk about. we sanulian smith's reaction. going back to women in the cavernous, this has been heavily briefed that the prime minister will be bringing in this new generation of talent. these are women who won't necessarily be occupying top positions but may be promoted next time there is a reshuffle? yes, there are two elements. obviously paving the way for future governments and bringing in more talented women. there are loads of women to choose from. to get more of them lined up. but also, there is

as well our the northern ireland secretary who oversaw the restoration of devolved government at stormontworld health leaders say there is no new cause for alarm despite a steep rise and a number of deaths of the coronavirus and china. yesterday was the deadliest day of the outbreak so far. more than 80 people quarantined are allowed to leave. following 14 days in isolation after flying back from china, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. ministers and announce an independent inquiry into maternity services in east kent after it a death —— the deaths of a number of babies there. any moment it will be time for sports day but first a look at what is coming up this evening on bbc news. they will be speaking to a top government aid he lost his job today as a result of the cabinet reshot. he with a number of deaths from coronavirus on a rise we will ta ke from coronavirus on a rise we will take a look at the impact the virus will have on the chinese economy. and at 20 to ii and half past 11 we will take a look at tomorrow's front pages. with a representative from the wall streetjournal pag

the northern ireland secretary julian smith, who oversaw the restoration of devolved government at stormontnounce an independent inquiry into maternity services at an nhs trust in east kent after the deaths of a number of babies there. world health leaders say there's no new cause for alarm despite a steep rise in the number of deaths from coronavirus in china. yesterday was the deadliest day of the outbreak so far. more than 80 people quarantined on the wirral are allowed to leave, following 14 days in isolation after flying back from wuhan in china — the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are jack blanchard, editor of the politico london playbook, and anna isaac reporter at the wall streetjournal. great to have you here. many of tomorrow's front pages are already in. the financial times leads on sajid javid stepping down as chancellor after rejecting borisjohnson‘s order to sack his team of advisers and aides. similarly, the metro also focuses on sajid javid quitting in a row with borisjohnson ov

smith, only weeks after the northern ireland secretary played a key role in restoring devolution to stormontthe minister from the department for digital media, culture and sport, robert courts. as the drama unfolded, parliamentary life continued as usual. there was culture questions, minus the outgoing culture secretary, lady morgan, who's now a peer. oral questions, attorney general, alex norris. and attorney general questions, without the attorney general. geoffrey cox was among the reshuffle casualties. others were not taking their survival chances for granted. i look forward to working with him and his committee, i hope, in this... ..in this important... i'll put my phone on speaker on the dispatch box! mps — well, some of them — finally caught up with the news during questions to the leader of the commons. given the events of the day, i suppose we should congratulate the leader of the house for surviving the current cabinet cull that is under way, at least thus far. we should be grateful that our business is led by someone who has proven his indispensability to the prime minister. mr sp

face with unionist politicians north of the border in the stormont was the result actually very expected and. a clear legacy of the western economic crisis invent a foil should have adapted to the conditions of the poorest people in the island who have clearly suffered since the i.m.f. and the bailouts of your country yeah i think i mean we've we've put our action slate our manifesto was prudent and acknowledge the reality of the situation and we weren't offering tax cuts we were offering increases and probably expenditure with with whatever additional revenues were available to the government and we were doing that at a prudent level by contrast we came up with a classic magic money tree they were going to spend 22000000000 over the next 5 years and i think the same criticism probably made of jeremy corman's manifesto so we've taken a very prudent line we don't want to beggar the next generation we've learned our lessons to critics say it's a really big good because the payments have to be made over what decades yes they do and there's a very very high national debt so that's still a mi

this is the next storm, deepening area of low pressure heading up to iceland, stormont dennis arrivesowever, we will see widespread jails, gusts 60, maybe 70 mph. biggest impact expected to be across england and wales because of the strength of the wind. also some heavy rain that is likely to lead to some flooding. this is the business briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. oil companies going green. sounds like an impossibility, but that's the buzzword for the oil—majors nowdays and today bp will outline its strategy. samsung takes another stab at a foldable smartphone we get a closer look at the z flip. and on the markets, asia—pacific rose on wednesday following another positive lead from wall street the dowjones ending the day neutral, though.

smith, only weeks after the northern ireland secretary played a key role in restoring devolution to stormonthe reshuffle got under way, the commons carried on as normal. questions to minister for the department of digital, culture, media and sport — robert courts. there was culture questions minus the outgoing culture secretary, lady morgan, who's no longer an mp. 0ral questions — attorney general, alex norris. attorney general questions without the attorney general. geoffrey cox was among the reshuffle casualties. others were not taking their survival chances for granted. i look forward to working with him and his committee, i hope, in this... laughter. in this important... in this... i'll put my phone on speaker on the despatch box. mps, well some of them, finally caught up with the news during questions to the leader of the commons. given the events of the day, i suppose we should congratulate the leader of the house for surviving the current cabinet cull that is under way at least thus far. laughter. we should be grateful that our business is led by someone who has proven his indispensab

mps in westminster voted to change the law last year, in the absence of a functioning stormont executive! not only have they tied the knot, but they've also made history. northern ireland's first ever same—sex marriage has taken place in carrickfergus. we are equal to a man and a woman. our love is just the same, it's no different. sometimes, like, people make fun and say it's not. our love is the exact same... as everyone else's. ..and this means everything to us. just to be married, you know, now we have an opportunity to say, "this is my wife". i can finally say she is my wife, and we have actually had our marriage. it has been a controversial issue in northern ireland, but in the end, same—sex marriage was legalized by mps in westminster, while power sharing here was collapsed. campaigners say today is a landmark moment. it's definitely a surreal experience to see the couple get married today. there have been so many blockages and barricades to equality for lgbt people for so long. for eight years, we have been taking a copy through the northern ireland assembly and then through west

second biggest party in northern ireland where it is part of the shell —— power—sharing government in stormonthe increase in support and have not fielded as many candidates as the other parties, so... candidates as the other parties, so... so even if it is sightly the same as fianna fail and fine gael or even slightly ahead... chris, you still there, can hear me? yes, i can. we will try one more. i will apologise now if we have to cut away from you because of disruption on the line. in a time when gerry adams was president of sinn fein, even in the years after the ira had given up weapons and we had had the peace agreement, there was still a legacy of people who dislike sinn fein because of its association with the ira which gerry adams was never able to overcome. has there now been enough of a generational change in the voters and in the leadership that that has allowed a parties image —— the party ‘s image to change? yes, i certainly think that has been a factor. two years ago, gerry adams stood down as president of sinn fein to be replaced by mary lou mcdonald and while gerry adams a lwa ys

of low pressure, which even at this stage, several days ahead, has been named by the met office stormontvere gales in evil because it is worth staying tuned to the forecast. it could be very turbulent indeed. in china, fighting the virus street by street, home by home — the country has just seen the biggest rise in patients in a single day 0ur message to the international community is, invest today or pay more later. for the first time, passengers on a cruise ship in the region have tested positive — tourists have been told to stay in their cabins. here, the government is organising a last and final flight for brits to get out of wuhan. also tonight... god bless america. thank you very much. that's one way to show you didn't like the speech —

he got power—sharing up and running again in stormont and it is an incredible achievement yet because when he thought no deal might be happening and he said it would be a bad idea for northern ireland, and he is out, despite the very competent things he has done instalment. the last 2a hours across the political divide in northern ireland, people say this was a very good secretary and now brandon lewis, former immigration minister and he is now there but he was widely tipped to be sacked altogether. is northern ireland now another office for shoving someone you don't want to see, incompetent ministers there? where do you stand on the issue over compliance over... ? on the issue over compliance over...? there is on the issue over compliance over. . . ? there is truth in it, on the issue over compliance over...? there is truth in it, but if you are a prime minister who has come through... it came after a year when everything was contested, cabinets had to be balanced, boris johnson are simply saying, i don't wa nt johnson are simply saying, i don't want to do that again, i don't have to

i can tell him that we will implement the stormont house agreement in such a way as to provide certaintyate change and whatever happened with cop26. questions about journalism is as well. it isa journalism is as well. it is a rare day, i managed to predict what was going to happen.” don‘t think we got far with the spat over premature end. that may climate change. jeremy corbyn challenging him over the sacked head of the cop26 conference, him over the sacked head of the co p26 conference, claire him over the sacked head of the cop26 conference, claire o‘neill. the prime minister confirmed that the conference would go ahead in glasgow. claire o‘neill yesterday suggested such was the acrimony between the premised on the scottish government there was a? about whether it might move to england. borisjohnson whether it might move to england. boris johnson saying whether it might move to england. borisjohnson saying oh, it will be fantastic and will happen in glasgow. —— mike no. the two amusing things, maybe, we got confirmation that the government will introduce emergency legislation to beef u

ireland secretary julian smith — just weeks after he helped strike a deal to restore power sharing at stormontof the irish sea might have been sajid javid to's resignation but very much for us on this side of the irish sea, on both sides of the border, julian smith's departure from the office of secretary of state for northern ireland is much bigger news i think. i think that the well of both arlene foster, the leader of the dup, and leo varadkar the now outgoing taoiseach and the respect shown to julian smith by both of those figures is really a testament to his ha rd figures is really a testament to his hard work and success that he had in the role. it is a very sad day for all of us on both sides of the border. yesterday was a very sad day, very sad to see him go. he will be missed. some up what it was that julian smith had managed to achieve in quitea julian smith had managed to achieve in quite a short period of time, really. a remarkably short period of time. he of course, with his cou nterpa rts time. he of course, with his counterparts in the irish government simon coveney who also wil

. —— stormont —— storm keira. fog lifting later this afternoon. for most of the uk dry. head on through this evening and overnight, once again we are looking at some clear skies around. some cloud around. 0ut towards the west, we will be starting to see the arrival of a weather front and through the course of tomorrow, it will bring into the west apache light rain and drizzle. tomorrow for many of us, when the mist and fog lifts, it will be breezy overnight and we are in for a largely dry day. but i won't to take it to the weekend because the stash i want to ta ke weekend because the stash i want to take you to the weekend. saturday night into sunday, we're looking very windy conditions. gaels on saturday night, even severe in the north and west. severe gales and stormy conditions. thus of wind as much as 70 miles per hour across parts of southern england. —— gusts. across the north—west, gusts even more than that, maybe even 80 plus miles an hour. keep in touch with the focus. sunday damaging gusts wind. i will get my graphics fixed. who needs graphics! a good explanati