Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240713

Scotland said no to borisjohnson and the tories, no to brexit. Im shaun ley with todays other headlines. Faster journies, new routes and more trains its all change on the railways from tomorrow. The search for two remaining bodies resumes following mondays volcanic eruption in new zealand. Crucial United Nations climate talks in madrid are continuing. Theres no sign that agreement is imminent. And in half an hour, we look at social media innovation made in china, and why its setting nerves jangling in silicon valley. Thats click, here on the bbc news channel at 2 30. Hello. The Prime Minister is visiting the north east of england where a surge of support for the conservatives in traditional labour seats helped his party to its biggest election win in 30 years. In the past couple of hours, Boris Johnson met supporters in newly conservative sedgefield, tony blairs old constituency. The labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is coming under increasing pressure to resign immediately after his party suffered its worst Election Results since the 1930s. Our report from matt cole contains some flashing images. Workington, Bishop Auckland, leigh, all north of england fortresses which fell to the conservatives. And sedgefield, yes, tony blairs old seat, sedgefield. Borisjohnson arrived there this morning because it, too, is now tory blue, and make no mistake, the choice of seat to visit, that of labours most successful former pm will have been chosen to maximise the imagery. I know that people may have been breaking the voting habits of generations to vote for us, and i want you, the people of the north east to know that we in the conservative party and i, will your repay your trust. Cheering. When mps return here at the start of the week, the conservatives will be buoyant. 365 of them willing to do borisjohnsons bidding. For labour it will be very different. Their mps will be sore, disappointed and looking for a new leader. One of those tipped to run declined to declare her interest this morning. We dont, we should have a period of mourning, we need to have a chance to stop and think, 0k . Ive got nothing else to say. Jeremy corbyn wants to mind the shop until a new leader is elected, leading through the reflection period but his critics reject that idea. I dont think you can have the proper, deep reflection that we need to have under the leadership of a person who thinks that the programme is all right, that he worked really hard, and that the only thing that was wrong was that the media didnt like him, and that the brexit message was wrong. These are happier times for the snp leader, here amongst her winners. 48 mps were elected on the scottish nationalist ticket, a mandate, says nicola sturgeon, for a second Scottish Independence referendum. This was a watershed election. It couldnt really be clearer now that the majority in scotland want a different future to that that has been chosen by much of the rest of the uk. Scotland said no to borisjohnson and the tories and no to brexit, and sent a clear message that we want the future of scotland to be in the hands of people who live here. The problem is this man needs to say yes and last night he made clear he is not going to. That will not deter the snp, so prepare for a Long Campaign in the months and possibly years to come. We can speak now to Political Risk consultant helen thomas. Helen was an adviser to the former chancellor George Osborne and now advises the finance industry on Political Risk. Thank you for coming in. What has been the Market Reaction . We saw the panga up and fell back a bit . That is right, the scale of this victory provides a degree of certainty we have not had for several years so thatis have not had for several years so that is good in the sense of a strong government and a clear plan ahead but some questions remain because although getting brexit done means this Withdrawal Agreement will go through parliament, the question is about the trade deal, what is our relationship going to be like with the eu going forwards . In terms of the eu going forwards . In terms of the Spending Plans of borisjohnson, boosting economic activity, we saw negative numbers just before the vote last week. What is the expectation of what is coming . There will be a budget plan. They are talking about march as the date, so in the new year, he is at the height of his powers. It looks like he will unleash something of a fiscal stimulus and of course, we might see something from the bank of england as well, he will be appointing the next bank of england governor, so do we get the jump leads out for the economy . Will that be what you looks to do when he starts . Could Interest Rates go up potentially . Yes, if growth comes back and inflation comes by, we could be looking at Interest Rate rises in the future, which have not been on the horizon for some time, we have been treading water economically as this whole thing has gone on. Lots of people in the city were against brexit because they were worried about losing people. People have already left. What is the forecast on that at the moment . There had to be no deal planning if there had come to a point where the deadline had passed and we dropped out of the European Union, business would have found it difficult to continue without the contingency plans. Big multinationals already move people to dublin or luxembourg. At least that risk is mitigated but you certainly do not bring everybody back. People have gone and they will not be coming back. Do we know, for example, whether the city of london, this massive financial engine that powers growth across the country, london powers the rest of the country, is that going to shrink . Now that brexit will definitely happen . Some of that shrinkage has taken place already because of the money that has come out. Then it is going to depend upon what the relationship looks like in the future, how closely aligned from a Financial Services perspective is the city going to be with the eu. If it diverges, this alleged singapore upon thames model, or is it something that sees the businesses relocate even further back to the European Union . It is an open question. With the focus on the north west and north east of the country and that involves spending, who ultimately pays for that, even if it is borrowed now . Because they cannot touted by growth. It is an amazing turnaround. I worked under George Osborne in that whole period of austerity and the number of years later, while the spending tabs are not fully on, they are being turned on. You cannot spend and spend forever without somebody picking up the bill. Having said that, we are ina the bill. Having said that, we are in a relatively low Interest Rate environment, the world globally seems to have demand for british assets. It looks like there will be people out there, the market will be able to buy our dad, but we will see how long that process and whether we can get the Economic Growth to make us can get the Economic Growth to make us look like we can pay for it in the future. Thank you for coming in. Very interesting. Thank you very much. As we have been hearing, labour lost seats in areas they have safely held for decades. One such seat is sedgefield, which had been labour since the 1930s. The outgoing mp, phil wilson, spoke to the bbc about the reasons he lost the seat. Well, i never take any election for granted but so many people said to me on the doorstep, phil, if you had a different leader, id vote for you. Youd walk it. Youd probably form the next government. So they thought that, and the one thing that was holding them back from voting labour was the current leadership of the labour party, and you cant get away from that. So did Jeremy Corbyn lose you your seat . Yes. Has anybody. Has he, john mcdonnell, any of the labour top team, been in touch . No, no. No. I wouldnt have thought they would be. And its. You know, i would never take these elections for granted. I never have and i never would, if i ever stand again. But when its every doorstep, its the same issue, then you know youve got a problem and you know what the problem is, and to try and disguise it, which i think the leadership of the labour party is now by saying it was brexit or its the Mainstream Media, just sort of like man up, basically, because the problem was Jeremy Corbyn. It was the worldview that was being promoted by him and his leadership. And weve got to face up to that. And if you complain about the Mainstream Media and then they find all these stories about terrorism and about hamas and hezbollah, then dont go and talk to them and dont be seen with them and then expect to get the treatment that, you know, not to expect the treatment youve been getting off the Mainstream Media. So a lot of the stories, theres no smoke without fire, basically. Jeremy corbyn said this morning that he wont lead labour into another general election. Is that enough right now, or should he have resigned . He should resign. Ithink, you know. I think, if he decides to stay on, if its not into the next election, which is, i would assume, in 2024, thats obviously five years, then, you know, thats going to do even more damage and labour voters are just going to think that were taking seriously, you know. And youve got to fess up, the project has failed, or the. You know, the. The project has failed, and youve now got to leave the stage and vacate it for somebody else, who might be able to bring the labour party back to labour voters and our labour communities that are now faced, because of this whole debacle, with five years of a tory government. And i think we can win seats like this back. I think in this general election, it seemed to me that everyone was voting against something, not for something. So what has happened in sedgefield and in darlington, in stockton south, in redcar, can be reversed, but only without major kind of surgery to the body. The body politic of the labour party. And weve got to face up to what the problems are, because if we dont, theres no reason for why the labour party should exist. Phil wilson, the labour mp for sedgefield who has just been ousted by the conservatives two days ago. Im joined via webcam by the conservative peer James Oshaughnessy who came up with the idea of the workington man to identify people in the north of england who were frustrated by lack of progress on brexit. Thanks forjoining us. The conservatives have probably just faced one of their easiest ever historic opponents in terms of Jeremy Corbyn. We are seeing people around the country condemned the leadership ofJeremy Corbyn. If the labour party get a credible leader next time around, the tories will lose those votes next time, one pay . I think it is undoubtedly the case thatJeremy Corbyn was a problem. I was up in the north west of england. Wont they. That was in the early pa rt wont they. That was in the early part of the week. Jeremy corbyn is a problem and brexit is a problem. In the future, thinking about those issues, if labour were to get a more credible leader and we were to get brexit done, as the Prime Minister has promised, that ought to be a better prospect for labour but i do not know it necessarily follows. Once you have made that choice of not giving your vote to a party, once you have broken free, that can be habit forming. Do you not think that whether it is the liberal democrats or the labour party or any new centre left democrats or the labour party or any new ce ntre left party, democrats or the labour party or any new centre left party, there are really only one charismatic leader away from electoral success, logically . It is difficult to see how your conservative vote can really hold sway for years . how your conservative vote can really hold sway for years . I do not agree with that and the reason i do not agree is that the communities that have voted conservative have been frankly forgotten about and allowed to decline under successive governments. They do not have a massive amount of trust for Political Parties and politicians in general. The reason that people have plenty Prime Minister therefore it is because of getting brexit delivered but also an idea of, come on, we will give you an opportunity to make things better. If the conservatives are complacent and do not take that opportunity, we will have lost their trust and we will deserve to lose their void but with a huge amount of care and attention has gone in this direction, understand what is motivating people in the areas gone blue, to find out what they care about and the challenge for the government is to meet those needs. What is your advice in orderfor borisjohnson meet those needs. What is your advice in order for borisjohnson to hold those votes up in five years . What should you be doing . The work that have we have done through our projects, politics and belonging, have identified that voters are more security oriented rather than freedom oriented. If you are in london, the westminster bubble, you hear a lot about liberation but actually what people want is protection, whether it is the economic headwinds of globalisation, protection from crime, and other issues and that security focuses where the conservatives need to go. That is easier on cultural issues. The voters we are talking about are more classically right wing. The big challenge for conservatives is on the economic agenda, where the party has been very free market since the time of margaret thatcher, but now needs to show a more interventionist approach. The early signs in the ma nifesto approach. The early signs in the manifesto and what we have heard from the Prime Minister so far, it seems he understands that, but that means delivering on things like infrastructure, education, better high streets and so on. Infrastructure, education, better high streets and so onlj infrastructure, education, better high streets and so on. I grew up in the north west, i travelled to Bishop Auckland for this election campaign. I know the north of it. For all those small towns, not the big cities, how do you get growth in realjobs big cities, how do you get growth in real jobs that big cities, how do you get growth in realjobs that keeps people in the area, generates money . That is a good question and the contrast between towns and cities is important. We said before this election that it would be one in the towns of england, where as its cities that usually get the attention, and i think thats right. Most of us who live in or grow up in towns across the country feel afraid of it over the last few years may be that colleges have been shrunk down shut down or shrunk in size, bus routes and so on are not what they could be, so it does involve a regeneration, laser like targeting on these kind of towns. But more importantly, i think its about jobs. Its about good quality, secure jobs, jobs. Its about good quality, securejobs, and jobs. Its about good quality, secure jobs, and one jobs. Its about good quality, securejobs, and one of the jobs. Its about good quality, secure jobs, and one of the tasks the government has with brexit is to actually use its trade policy, just like for example the irish do with their development, to bring high Quality Manufacturing jobs to everywhere in the country, does not notjust clustering around university cities. One of the concerns about brexit is that the communities that voted most heavily to leave will be most damaged by it. The uk is actually incredibly good at advanced manufacturing, i was a Health Minister myself, we are very strong in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, devices and so on. And again, i think there is no reason, a lot of the products, medical devices, medicine and so on that made all throughout europe, a lot more of those could be made here. So its those kind ofjobs. And of course notjust manufacturing, services as well, and there is no why those jobs, those factories and offices and so on, couldnt be located across the country, especially if the country is very well networked by transfer. Thats a problem. That is outside of the south of london, transport is not good enough and that is holding us not good enough and that is holding us back. Thank you very much indeed for joining us back. Thank you very much indeed forjoining us today, much appreciated. So how did borisjohnson s 80 seat majority happen . Scroll through our interactive map and witness the gains and losses that made for a momentous election night. Catastrophic of course, for labour and the lib dems, and successorfor the snp. And the lib dems, and successorfor the snp. Successful for the snp. You can visit bbc. Co. Uk news or the bbc news app. And now to my colleague shaun ley for the rest of the days news. The headlines on bbc news. The Prime Minister tells supporters in tony blairs old constituency in north east england that they have changed the Political Landscape and the country. Fasterjourneys, new routes and more trains its all change on the railways from tomorrow. The search for two remaining bodies resumes, following mondays volcanic eruption in new zealand. Rail passengers are being urged to check their train times before travelling from tomorrow, as a new winter timetable comes into effect. Train Companies Say they plan to increase services, cutjourney times and add new routes across the country, following investment in infrastructure and rolling stock. Our Business Correspondent Katie Prescott has the details. This is the nightmare scenario. When train timetables were changed in may last year, chaos ensued. Standing room only as passengers faced cancellations, delays and overcrowding. But the organisation representing the Train Company says this time will be different. What we are doing now is were looking at each other in the eye, whether it be train operators or infrastructure managers, and saying, are you really ready to put these new services on . And if they look as if they would impact either punctuality or reliability, they are pulled from being an additional service. We dont want to go through what happened last year. If these timetable changes are a success, some parts of the uk will benefit from faster and more frequent services. Tomorrow will see the biggest timetable change on Great Western Railway Network since the 1970s. The electrification of the line between london and bristol will shave 12 minutes off the quickest trains. The maesteg and conwy lines in wales will get sunday services for the first time. And there will be major improvements on the scotrail network, with Additional Trains in north east scotland as well as extra seat between edinburgh and glasgow. Passengers are advised to check before they travel as many train times are changing from tomorrow. Police have officially named the first victim of the white island volcano eruption in new zealand, as Recovery Efforts continue. Krystal eve browitt was a 21 year old australian who was visiting the island with her family. Her father and sister are both in hospital with serious injuries. Fifteen deaths have been now been confirmed from mondays eruption, while about 20 people are in intensive care with severe burns. The bbcs phil mercer explained earlier how the search for the two remianing bodies is rogressing. Police divers and their colleagues from the navy have been in the contaminated waters off white island, and those seas have been contaminated by that volcanic eruption on monday, so ash chemicals in the water, and when the divers have to come out of the water, they must be decontaminated. Visibility is not good in the water and what theyre looking for is a body. A body was seen in the sea 2a hours after the eruption, so the authorities believe that there are two more victims that they need to retrieve. One of them is believed to be in the water, the other is still thought to be on the island. There will be no attempt to go back in to land on the island today, so the authorities are concentrating their effort on the seas in the bay of plenty, looking for one of those last known victims. Tens of thousands of people have gathered in rome for what the organisers hope will be the biggest street protest against italy s far right league party, led by the former deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. The movement, called the sardines, started last month and has grown rapidly. Our correspondent mark lowen is in rome. It looks pretty busy around you. Hard to tell when the shot is in like that. This has not only been relatively quick, its been astonishingly quick. How is this movement grown . Its been incredibly quick. I miss the lapsed part of your question because they have just broken out into the anthem of the sardine movement, the antifascist partizan song, sardine movement, the antifascist pa rtizan song, bella sardine movement, the antifascist partizan song, bella ciao. The last pa rt partizan song, bella ciao. The last part of your question. And theyre fighting against the values of fascism that they believe are espoused now by italys far right here, Matteo Salvini, the former deputy Prime Minister who is now in opposition, he leads the league that party, and this movement has sprung up party, and this movement has sprung up as party, and this movement has sprung upasa party, and this movement has sprung up as a spontaneous protest against him. Up as a spontaneous protest against him. The league party. This started just a month ago as a flash mob in the italian city of bologna, the idea of fourfriends mob in the italian city of bologna, the idea of four friends to gather people in the square there as Matteo Salvini was due to launch a campaign foran salvini was due to launch a campaign for an election. Double the planned number of people came and so spike this movement. They called themselves the sardines because so tightly packed into squares, they have gathered the length and breadth of italy and stunned italy by the speed with which they have grown, the numbers turning out, they really caught Matteo Salvini by surprise. There has been an impression of the last few months, that although mr salvini was no longer in government, that really he was driving the political agenda of italy and was making bold attempts to seize political territory that in the past has been really the lefts since at least the second world war. Is this an attempt to kind of redress the balance of this . Its definitely an attempt to stop him in his tracks, but youre right. Polls show he is either the second of the most popular leader, politician in italy. And if a National Poll were to take place now. Polls suggest he would win that. And so this is the kind of response to that. Its a protest movement that is aimed to try and stop the league from winning an important election in italy next month. They are extremely worried by salvinis. Month. They are extremely worried by salvinis. Pulses of hard line against immigration. They are saying italy needs to welcome migrants and return to values of human rights. And yes, it is a popular uprising, not only against the far right but also against populism. Filling a vacuum here where traditional Political Parties are failing. And the interesting thing is, if you look around, you can see a lot of images of fish, humorous slogans, there are no politicalflags. These people are trying to rise above traditional political divisions, show they are representing the core values of italian democracy. Thank you very much, we will touch in more mark later in the afternoon. Apologies for some of the drop out there but i think you got a clear idea of what he was talking about with that sardine movement. We will keep up to date with that through the course of the afternoon. Negotiations at the United Nations Climate Summit in madrid are continuing this weekend without an agreement in sight. The two week summit, known as cop25, was meant to decide on rules for the implementation of the 2015 paris climate agreement. Many key issues were left open after last years summit in poland and remain unresolved. Our environment correspondent matt mcgrath explained the latest developments. Theyve gone into overtime here at this particular conference. Its not unusual that talks at the un about Climate Change go into overtime, it seems to happen every year. I think delegates came here two weeks ago hoping to put some urgency into the negotiations, hoping to see an agreement that came out of here that would emphasise what they call ambition, which they wanted to see a range of countries put new pledges on the table by the end of next year, when this conference will move to glasgow. Thats become potentially the main Sticking Point here. A number of countries, the European Union and small island states, are keen to see those pledges and a timetable of this pledges on the table by the end of next year. A number of other countries are less keen on doing that. As you said, there are a number of other issues, as well. Theres arguments about carbon markets, about compensation for smaller island states who may suffer the damages caused by Climate Change. Those have also proved very sticky, and the atmosphere here at the moment isnt particularly good. I think there is a great pressure on the countries here to compromise, i mean, compromise. Nothing is agreed here until everything is agreed, so it works by unanimity. I think there would be an awful lot of pressure for countries to come forward with proposals that would be acceptable to everybody. Theyve been trying to do that, theyve worked through the night to try and find common ground. When they had a Plenary Meeting this morning, or a stock taking as its called here, there were many objections on lots of different questions and i think thats one of the things thats causing a lot of people worry here, that its notjust one issue or two issues, there are a range of issues on which people feel their voices arent being heard, where the science is not being reflected and where the voices of protesters in the streets arent being reflected either. And so i think theres a lot of work to do to get that compromise, but theres still, i think, quite a few hours to go for the negotiators to secure it. Parts of australia are bracing for an extreme heatwave which could break records dating back to the 1960s. The weather is causing headaches for firefighters who are now dealing with a bushfire emergency in Western Australia. Freya cole has more. Western australia is known for its pristine beaches butjust two weeks into summer, parts have been inundated by fire and thick smoke. Strong wind fuel the flames that are proving difficult for firefighters to get under control. Just a short distance separates the front line of the blaze and dozens of homes. In scorching heat residents are forced to do what they can while firefighters use heavy machinery to build a natural barrier. One of the challenges for this fire is to complete a mineral earth break using machinery to work against. We havent achieved that yet because it is a fast moving fire in hot conditions fanned by strong winds. The temperatures are between 12 and 16 degrees above average for this time of year. It is about to get worse. We have seen extraordinary temperatures over Western Australia over the last few days. That will continue over the weekend. As we head towards next week that heat will extend further to the east. This map shows the extent of next weeks heatwave. Vast areas of the entire country are set to feel extreme heat. There is the potential we could see some records broken. We will be monitoring that closely. It is not the news Firefighters Want to hear. Already this year fires in eastern australia have claimed four lives, more than 400 homes and have burned through more than i million hectares of land. It has taken a heavy toll on precious species like the koala and burned through Heritage National parks. Smoke pollution is suffocating sydney and many small towns which triggered large scale protests. Toxic smoke is also spreading across the other side of the country in the west where the bushfire disaster is far from over. Freya cole, bbc news. Rather less distressing Weather Forecast now from said key lucas. Good afternoon. It is windy and wintry through the course of the weekend. Lots of blustery showers Michael Reddy today and more of those through the remainder of the weekend, some of them falling as snow over higher ground. The winds area snow over higher ground. The winds are a real feature, snow over higher ground. The winds are a realfeature, up to snow over higher ground. The winds are a real feature, up to 50 snow over higher ground. The winds are a realfeature, up to 50 mph around the coast. Inland, 30 a0 mph. Drier weather for a around the coast. Inland, 30 a0 mph. Drier weatherfor a time around the coast. Inland, 30 a0 mph. Drier weather for a time across