Hello, good morning. Iam Annita Mcveigh and welcome to bbc newsroom live. The us director of National Intelligence has rejected suggestions made by donald trump that Official Agencies Leaked claims russia had Compromising Material on him. In a statement, James Clapper said he had called the President Elect to say the information had not come from the us Security Services. Meanwhile the bbc understands the ex mi6 officer who is believed to have prepared the memo containing the unsubstantiated claims is now in hiding. Christopher steele, who runs a london based intelligence firm, is believed to have left his home this week. Our washington Correspondent Laura Bicker has the story. Donald trumps not a huge fan of the press corps, but he had a message to send to the media and to Us Intelligence agencies. He believes they leaked unsubstantiated allegations that his Election Team colluded with russia. It is all fake news, it is phoney stuff, it didnt happen. There are also claims that russian spies have compiled material to blackmail mr trump, including salacious videos of his private life. Does anyone really believe that story . Im also very much of a germaphobe, by the way, believe me. The bbc understands the russian memos on mr trump were compiled by a former member of mi6, Christopher Steele. The director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has now called the President Elect. He said the leak did not come from within Us Intelligence, and they have not made anyjudgement that the information is reliable. As donald trump moved the media towards his business dealings, he confirmed he was handing Total Control of his empire to his two sons. These papers are just some of the many documents that ive signed turning over complete and Total Control to my sons. That too is proving troublesome. The Ethics Committee has now said his plan does not meet past president ial standards. This performance was a typically eccentric and bombastic piece of political theatre, which his supporters will love. But it did little to calm the swirl of controversies which surround this President Elect. Laura bicker, bbc news, washington. With me is our security correspondent frank gardner. Good morning. Just checking your twitter feed for the latest on this story you caught me there. But eve ryo ne story you caught me there. But Everyone Wants to know of course is do these tapes, does this type or types exist tape. How do we go about establishing the veracity of the allegations surrounding donald trump at the moment . the allegations surrounding donald trump at the moment . I think we have to go with what we know as fact rather than rumour and so on, because there are denials and come to denials. The fact that donald trump has said it is totally fake, you know, this is the same person who questioned whether president obama was really an american or born in america. Of course he denied for some time that russia had been involved in hacking into the democratic e mails. So you know, i would take that denial, not at face value. The office of the director of National Intelligence, which is the overseer of intelligence gathering in United States, they put out a Statement Last night which they e mailed to me and otherjournalists saying that they have not substantiated this, they are extremely concerned, the league did not come from them. But they have briefed but the president barack obama and the President Elect about the contents of this 35 page dossier. The allegations in it, abuse who havent yet seen it i am not going to go into the details, but essentially the allegations in this dossier which were presented to the fbi in august are that there are the fbi in august are that there are the russians have got comprising material on President Elect trump, that he was in a room with prostitutes in the president ial suite at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in moscow in 2013 and they were doing some unusual sexual practices. Donald trump has said this is absolute nonsense, totally made up, it has been made up by his political enemies. And i have not seen anything to substantiate it. There are rumours that the tape exists and that there are other tapes. I have not seen it were spoken to anyone who has seen it. More worrying perhaps the obligation that there are financial dealings, money passing from russia to members of Donald Trumps team which would give them a hold over him. Again that is being denied. There is no evidence that it has been produced. It has been taken seriously enough that the briefings have been taking place and there is an Investigative Team by there is an Investigative Team by the Us Intelligence community that is the union to this, because in a few days time donald trump is about to get his fingers on the nuclear codes. Apart from anything he is going to wield enormous power, leaving aside everything else, do you really want america, if there is any truth in this, to be in a position where its Chief Executive is being held or buy a barrel by an adversary. So this is why people will be doing Due Diligence to whatever extent aunt on these allegations. That stuff about former mi6 allegations. That stuff about former m16 officer Christopher Steele prepared this memo, this dossier. But know about his reputation and why was he preparing this information in a memo in the first instance . Christopher steele is a 50 something british retired sas officer, secret Intelligence Service officer, secret Intelligence Service officer, who was a russia specialist. He has a lot of good context specialist. He has a lot of good Co Ntext Fro M specialist. He has a lot of good context from his time in moscow. He knows some former fsb and probably serving fsb officers. It is the successor to the kgb. The federal security bureau. They do the external spying a russia. He was commissioned by a washington political thing called a political activist committee, to basically compiled this dossier which looked at allegations that the russians had at allegations that the russians had a hold over donald trump. This was quite some time ago. This was earlier last year. But he found in that worried him so much that against the advice of his company 0rbis business intelligence, a British Company based here in london, against their advice he passed this dossier to the fbi in august. Somehow it leaked. The Us Intelligence community is saying they didnt deliberately rated but somehow it got out in about october. Buzzfeed then published two days ago all 35 pages even though it is not substantiated. Their view is that even though it is not substantiated, that the public make up their mind if it is true or not and that the public have a right to know what is being said about the man who was about to be the most powerful person in the world. The latest coming into us in the world. The latest coming into us from moscow. Reuters, a statement from Vladimir Putins spokesman. Seeing the kremlin is saying it hopes that mr putin and President Elect trump will get along and that there will be more Mutual Respect in the Us Russia Relations than there was under the obama administration. It is interesting, not for the first time of course, we are seeing donald trump criticising his own Intelligence Agencies and not appearing to criticise russia. This is an incredibly dangerous time actually. Us intelligence is very farfrom actually. Us intelligence is very far from perfect. They actually. Us intelligence is very farfrom perfect. They screwed up com pletely farfrom perfect. They screwed up completely over iraqs weapons of mass destruction. No one will ever forget that. Since then they have had, as mi6 has come at a complete root and branch reboot of the way they do stop. They now have checking and second sources and they keep separate the people who are gathering the intelligence from the people who are assessing it. The job of the assessors is to say, prove it. I dont believe it until you prove it. To try to stop that kind of thing happening again. Right now this is dangerous because america is ina time this is dangerous because america is in a time of flux. There are conflict zones in the ukraine, syria, they have got aces to deal with, so called islamic state, isis. All the hacking and interference, you have potential Crisis Building Up in north korea and the Nuclear Weapons programme and the Nuclear Weapons programme and potential crisis in the South China Sea over chinas encroachment into islands and the territorial waters, international waters. This is no time for the president to be doubting and mistrusting his own Intelligence Agencies. Those two organisations, the white house and the Intelligence Community, have got to work together. Frank, thank you very much. At 12 30pm here on the bbc news channel, ill put your questions on the political row over trump and the leaked dossier to our Diplomatic Correspondent paul adams. Please get in touch with us to ask those questions. You can text us or send an email or contact us via twitter using the hashtag bbcaskthis. Some of britains biggest high street names have reported Strong ChristmasSales Figures this morning. M s reported a 2. 3 percent rise in Clothing Sales in the 13 weeks to the end of december. Food sales were up slightly too. Meanwhile, tesco says its autumn sales were up by 1. 8 . And john lewis has reported a 2. 7 rise in sales over the Christmas Trading period. Vishala sri pathma is at a Shopping Centre in essex for us. Good morning to you. Thats the first of all at m s at tesco. They have both had some challenging times lately. Tell us about how they have done and they ran done in the row to christmas. I am here at the lakeside Shopping Centre in texas. A few shoppers about. Marks spencer had an essex. They had a hike in sales including the first time in yea rs. Sales including the first time in years. They put it down to range and availability. To christmas 2015 wasnt great for that particular section, Marks Spencer homeware and clothing was down about 5. 8 . They said the better range and availability help them. They also pointed to how christmas fell in 2016. It was on sunday so it meant more shopping days so more time for us more shopping days so more time for us to spend our money. Tescos also reported steady progress as they called it. There was an increase of 9. 796. Called it. There was an increase of 9. 7 . More sales 0. 7 . More sales of food and clothing but they were operating under different conditions in respect that they had a decent 2015. Slightly different but generally the overall message was quite positive. Broadly how have other retail s been saying there sales were and have they been looking ahead to this year at all and giving any predictions about how shopping trends might continue throughout the year . You mentioned debenhams earlier on. They did quite well. They increased sales by about 196 well. They increased sales by about 1 for the previous year. 0nline sales of debenhams, a 13 rise on the previous year. A source the Online Fashion retailer have done quite well because of the drop in sterling. Asos. They are expecting this year to be good for them. John lewis reported positive sales. However they warned their stuff at 2017 might be difficult for them and that bonuses this year might not be as good as well as the previous year. There is some content in there for the next 12 months. Thank you for that. The latest nhs figures confirm a sharp rise in delays in discharging patients from hospital because theres no Social Care Package available. Theyre up by 42 in november, with more figures for december due in the next few days. This comes against a background of rising demand in accident and emergency care, routine operations, Diagnostic Tests and consulta nt led treatment. With me is our Health Editor hugh pym. It always comes back to social care it seems, whatever other elements that are in other parts of the nhs. At the foundation of it all is social care. That is right. It has been confirmed by these figures to date. I hasten to add these are from november. The only get them a couple of months afterwards. The official figures from nhs england. We dont know officially what happened in december or early january other than the fact that the bbc was leaked a document showing quite how bad things were last big. So lets be clear, november was not a time the nhs was particularly in the headlines. More particular obvious stresses and strains apparent other than to those who work on the front line. Even so, all the key targets we re line. Even so, all the key targets were being missed it again. The key four our weights in a e, 95 of patients being seen or assessed were treated within four hours. It was way off that. About 88 . That target hasnt been dead since the middle of 2015. A lot of it comes down to social care hasnt been met. Beds are occupied for longer than they should have been. The increase in these figures today year on year. That means there are fewer figures coming into the bumper of the hospital so they get held up at various points in the chain. But that 42 for november increase in november in delays in discharging patients. The bad and more context. That is because of problems with social care. If you look at the overall number of delays, the increase is slightly less than that. They can because notjust by social ca re they can because notjust by social care but other bits of the nhs, for example you need to be charged transferred to other parts of the social community. The nhs has to accept some responsibility. We have seen accept some responsibility. We have seen consistent increases year on year of about 30 . That is all come home to roost in terms of the National Debate over social care. Theresa may and the government having to an Emergency Package just before christmas having not done a thing in the Autumn Statement. Simon stephens the head of the nhs indicating that frankly that isnt going to solve the long term problem, the long term issue is how you bring social care funding up to where it should have been having been cut consistently over many yea rs been cut consistently over many years to take the pressure off hospitals. Thank you. The headlines. The us director of National Intelligence rejects suggestions made by donald trump Official Agencies Leaked claims russia had Compromising Material on him. Some of britains biggest retailers including Marks Spencer, john lewis and tesco, have recorded Strong ChristmasSales Figures. The latest nhs figures, as we have just been discussing, was a 42 increase in november compared to the year before in delays in discharging patients from hospitals due to problems arranging care in the community. In sport, the liverpool Managerjurgen Klopp admitted his side are not lucky not to be further behind following their semifinal first leg. They trailed 1 0. There we re first leg. They trailed 1 0. There were several missed southampton chances. West ham forward Dimitri Payet has told the club he no longer wa nts to payet has told the club he no longer wants to play for them. Manager slaven bilic has since told the player to stay away from training and he will not feature against crystal palace. Johanna konta is into her Third Wta Final at the syd ney into her Third Wta Final at the Sydney International after beating the former wimbledon finalist Eugene Bouchard in straight sets. Plans for the uks first hydro electric tidal lagoon will take a significant step forward today. A report from the former