Health charity, mind. Regardless of who the biggest band in the world is, you will have to realise that youre going to be polishing ed sheerans boots. In a world exclusive, Coldplays Chris Martin speaks to the bbc about why hes taking the band off the road to save the planet. And england make a promising start to the first test in new zealand. Theyre 241 4 at close with ben stokes 67 not out. Good morning, and welcome to the bbc news at 9. Lawyers for women who say they were sexually assaulted by the convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, have urged the duke of york to give a sworn legal statement about his links to the american financier. Prince andrew said yesterday he was willing to help investigations into epstein if required. Hes also withdrawing from public duties because of what he called his ill judged association with epstein, who killed himself injail. 0ur royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell reports. He and Buckingham Palace accepted his position had become unsustainable. In a statement, Prince Andrew said he went on and finally and significantly all i can say is he should volunteer to co operate with Law Enforcement without any condition and without any more delay. The tone was notably contrite, something of a contrast to saturday nights broadcast. Any sense now of guilt, regret or shame about any of your behaviour in your friendship with epstein . As far as mr epstein is concerned, it was the wrong decision to go and see him in 2010. Do i regret the fact that, that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming . Yes. Unbecoming . He was a sex offender. Yeah, im sorry, im being polite. Buckingham palace will be hoping that andrews statement and his withdrawal from public duties will stem the criticism. They will be hoping, too, that the epstein allegations have now run their full course. Nicholas witchell, bbc news, at Buckingham Palace. Lisa bloom is a lawyer representing five of Jeffrey Epsteins alleged victims. She told Charlie Stayt on bbc breakfast what she thought of the princes latest statement. It isa it is a good first step, but it is long overdue, and the apology he is making to the victims is also long overdue. I think we saw how he really feels during his interview a few days ago where he was completely lacking in compassion for the victims but now, going forward, he says he will cooperate with Law Enforcement and that is a good first step and i hope it means Law Enforcement in every country that is doing investigations as well as the private civil suit by attorneys like me who are trying to getjustice for the victims. Can i ask, have you spoken to any of the five people you are representing . And have you got any sense from them what they make of what the duke of york has said . They were very upset by his initial interview and it just seemed they were very upset by his initial interview and itjust seemed like he was someone interview and itjust seemed like he was someone who had a lot of sympathy forjeffrey was someone who had a lot of sympathy for Jeffrey Epstein was someone who had a lot of sympathy forJeffrey Epstein and miss maxwell but not the victims. We do think it is a good, positive step that he says hes going to cooperate with Law Enforcement but wed like to see that happen. Is he going to, for example, fly to the United States and voluntarily meet with our fbi . Will he sit for depositions . In the civil cases, will he submit evidence like e mails and calendars and travel logs, that all of us would like to see as part of our investigations . Will he allow his staff to come and answer questions about his travels and where he was and what they saw . So a lot remains to be seen. Looking up the wording of the statement, one section says, the bit you are referring to, i think, of course, iam you are referring to, i think, of course, i am willing to help any appropriate Law Enforcement agency with their investigations if required. What do you make of that . The devil is in the detail. Its one thing to make a nice Public Statement when youre under attack, but its another thing to truly cooperate and turn over everything so cooperate and turn over everything so that the dozens and dozens of victims who have come forward, and i believe there are probably hundreds if not thousands of them, so we can all getjustice and put together a timeline and find out who else was involved. Its not just timeline and find out who else was involved. Its notjust about Prince Andrew or miss maxwell, there are many other recruiters, there are other prominent political figures, celebrities who are involved in this so celebrities who are involved in this so its time for us to get to the bottom of what happened and clearly Prince Andrew has some critical information. Can i ask you in a practical sense, in terms of the legal process, where do you see this going in relation to the duke of york . Well, i as an attorney have the right to subpoena witnesses to come and take depositions. Those are oui come and take depositions. Those are our court statements where they swear to tell the truth, they come into my office and they have to a nswer into my office and they have to answer my questions. If i as an attorney deemed the individual to have relevant information. Its not going to be easy to subpoena someone like Prince Andrew as he is honestly not walking down the street where someone can not walking down the street where someone canjust not walking down the street where someone can just hand not walking down the street where someone canjust hand him a piece of paper. Its a lot more complicated. If he refuses to come we might have a diplomatic situation between your country and mine. I hope it doesnt come to that. I take him at his word that he says he will cooperate and i hope that is what is going to happen. 0ur royal correspondent Sarah Campbell is outside Buckingham Palace. Good morning, sarah. Talk to us first about the Practical Implications of this decision by the prince to withdraw from public duties and how was that decision made . Who would have been involved in it . Good morning. Every day since the newsnight interview aired on saturday there have been more revelations and more apparent inconsistencies revealed in what Prince Andrew had said. Bbc panorama was due to broadcast an investigation in the next couple of weeks, and there was that drip drip from companies and organisations and Charities Involved with him who were trying to distance themselves from Prince Andrew and there was an inevitability before the statement was published before 6pm yesterday evening. So what does it mean . 0ur understanding is that it was a personal decision taken by Prince Andrew but this was following discussion with the queen and with Prince Charles who have courses on tourin Prince Charles who have courses on tour in new zealand the moment. He is not resigning any of his 200 or so patrick images or positions but he is stepping back from them patrickjennys he is stepping back from them patrick jennys and we he is stepping back from them patrickjennys and we understand that many of those organisations might wish to find themselves a new patron and there is an understanding on the part of the palace that that will happen. He was stepping back from public duties and he will not carry out any public engagements but our understanding from the palace is that he will appear at royal events, so potentially the next time we might see him is at sandringham at christmas, the traditional time when most of the senior members of the royalfamily come most of the senior members of the royal family come together. Interestingly one of the main organisations that he has been involved with in the last five years orso, an involved with in the last five years or so, an initiative he set up to bring entrepreneurs, big businesses and organisations together, some of the sponsors we have been hearing from this week have said they want to distance themselves from him have been involved through that organisation and our understanding from sources is that the duke will continue to work and look at how he ta kes continue to work and look at how he takes it forward outside of public duties and they say there will be a period of time while this transition ta kes period of time while this transition takes place. In terms of what the duke said about people being willing to do investigations into epstein again, what does that mean in practice . Because certainly his coming under some pressure from lawyers, isnt he . Absolutely and this was in the statement from him that was released yesterday, the exact wording is are that he says he is willing to help any appropriate Law Enforcement agency with their investigations if required but we have not had anything more expansive as to what that means going forward, but as weve been hearing this morning organisations, lawyers for the alleged victims ofJeffrey Epstein, they take issue with the phrase if required. They want him to voluntarily come forward and give his side of the story to help in any way he can in terms of the civil suits that they are taking out against the estate ofJeffrey Epstein. That is one legal side. The other legal side is the criminal investigation which is ongoing involving the fbi. And the Law Enforcement agency that the prince refers to in his statement but on thoseissues refers to in his statement but on those issues its a bit of a wait and see. Sarah, thank you very much. Im late at this hour we will be hearing from will king, one of the founders of pitch at palace. Labour will unveil its general manifesto this morning as the party sets out its plan for government should it win the election. Jeremy corbyn says the programme represents the most radical and ambitious plan to transform the country in decades. Its expected to include proposals for a windfall tax on oil companies. Labour says it wants to shift the uk towards a low carbon, Green Economy. They say theyll set up a new Green Transformation Fund worth £250 billion to be paid for through borrowing. Housing is another core issue in the manifesto, the party says it will expand social and affordable housing, building 100,000 Council Homes a year in england by the end of the next five year parliament. Theyve also promised to build 50,000 affordable homes. The conservatives, meanwhile, have put forward their own proposals to boost the housing stock, help First Time Buyers and spend more on social care. Lets get some more analysis on what we can expect. 0ur Political Correspondent iain watson is at the labour manifesto launch in birmingham. Good morning. How much of a bounce will labour be hoping to get from this big launch today in the polls . I think they will really need one. Certainly in 2017jeremy corbyn credited the manifesto is the very thing that gave him a boost to his flagging fortunes and he said it was a popular document, the star of the campaign so they are going to have to better that. I think perhaps it might also have something to do with theresa mays manifesto on how she conducted herself to, but never mind. Its the policies they put forward they say will be more radical in 2017, but some of their much the same. But overall we will see an increasing role for the state and an active role for government, so may be the renationalisation of the railways, the water industry and these were previous proposals and we had them preannounced, the partial renationalisation of bt to provide a free broadband but we will also see a big role for local government as well as national, so more powers for local government over schools in their area and that big announcement today on housing as well, to give you an idea of the scale, the last time hundred thousand home was back in 1977 time hundred thousand home was back in1977 in the time hundred thousand home was back in 1977 in the era of punk rock. 0nly in 1977 in the era of punk rock. Only 3000 were built in the last year and so to build and by the end of the next parliament is a Big Programme and there are some doubts being about the capacity about angela rayner, the shallow end education secretary said this morning she was confident that labour could deliver it and also offer hope to people young people who are finding it very difficult not to get just who are finding it very difficult not to getjust on the poverty line are even finding somewhere to rent. We have to make sure that brownfield is important and we have to get that land back up to scratch to make sure we can use it on the Public Sector has a lot of land that is not being utilised and to make sure that happens we will protect the green belts because the important thing about our House Building programme is notjust how many units about our House Building programme is not just how many units we willed build, but bringing communities together. Angela rayner confident they can deliver the target of 100,000 homes by the end of the next parliament with labour in government in england. The manifesto ranges more widely than that and there is an eternal row as to whether they will stick to conference policy to achieve net zero Carbon Emissions by 2030 and my understanding is that will be fudged when we get the ma nifesto will be fudged when we get the manifesto and a couple of hours time, but Party Insiders are stressing how radical the Environmental Policies are going to be and there will be a million more jobs in green industries, thats a private estimate and there will be a new emphasis on public transport, re instituting bus routes and extending the entitlement to free bus travel as well. They have already announced taxes on people earning more than £80,000 per year and that will go up and Corporation Tax will go up and internally there will be a windfall tax on the oil industry, so will that call disinvestment in the north sea. It was deftly a draft of the manifesto on saturday and im being told we will stick with that when a formal document is launched in two hours time. Ian, thank you very much. Business presenter dominic 0connell is here to let us know how industry is reacting to labours manifesto plans. Good morning to you. Lets talk first about housing because both labour and the conservatives are talking about that, ambitious House Building programmes. How well set is the construction sector to respond to Something Like this . Labour is talking about building a extra homes per year but at the moment the entire industry produces £160,000 160 moment the entire industry produces £160,000 160 thousand a year and thatis £160,000 160 thousand a year and that is the highest number it has been since the banking crisis, so labour is talking about roughly doubling it and also roughly 100,000 of those come from councils and at the moment councils build only about 3000 homes per year. It is suggesting that what is at the heart of this is what were called direct labour organisations where councils directly employed people and did their own building and this was the case until 30 years ago but these we re case until 30 years ago but these were big labour strongholds, highly unionised workforces and big forces in social housing and they were taken away by Margaret Thatcher with competitive tendering and now we have a situation where councils dont build many houses so were talking about a huge expansion of the roles of councils in building and there are big question marks whether the people and resources exist to do it but labour are confident they can. Lets also talk about the proposal for a windfall tax on oil and gas. What are those proposals and a bit more detail, but how that might impact england and scotla nd how that might impact england and scotland question what we dont know the level of tax and if the ma nifesto the level of tax and if the manifesto says it they might, but if its a windfall tax rather than a continuing tax, that is one thing but people will be nervous north of the border because there is history here. Most incoming chancellors look at the north sea and thing here is a chance for us to make some money. George osborne recently did it and put extra taxes on the north sea not long after he came into power and almost immediately had to reverse them and change the tax to the north sea because of a disastrous drop in investment and if you talk to the north sea firms they say that more taxation might mean they do not do any more drilling in the north sea which if youre moving to a Green Economy might be the whole point of the policy anyway. Dominic, thank you very much. The conservatives are also talking about building houses today. Boris johnson will announce plans to deliver a million homes in five years, with extra help for First Time Buyers. The proposals include an overhaul of the planning system. The headlines on bbc news. Lawyers representing the victims of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein say Prince And