Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC Newsroom Live 20170510 : vimarsa

Of birds underneath the 840 motorway in buckinghamshire. Fifa has announced it is investigating paul pogbas £89 million transfer from juventus to Manchester United last summer. Good morning. Its wednesday, 10th may. Im joanna gosling. Welcome to bbc Newsroom Live. We start with Breaking News that the Crown Prosecution Service has said no concept of politicians or official would be charged with breaking rules on Election Campaign spending in 2015. The cbs have been considering file sent by the police for nearly 30 constituencies. The party has insisted administrative errors were to blame for any spending which was incorrectly declared. We have a statement through from the head of special crime at the Crown Prosecution Service. It says, we are files of evidence from 14 Police Forces in respect of allegations relating to conservative Party Candidate expenditure during the 2015th general Election Campaign. We considered whether candidates and election agents working in constituencies that were visited by the partys constituencies that were visited by the pa rtys Battle Constituencies that were visited by the partys Battle Bus May have committed a criminal offence by not declaring related expenditure on the local returns. Instead, as the Electoral Commission found in its report, the scots were recorded as National Expenditure by the party. We reviewed the files in accordance with the code of the crown prosecutors and have concluded the test and the code are not met and no criminal charges have been authorised. Under the representation of the people act, every candidate and agent must sign the declaration on expenses return that to the best of our knowledge and belief it is a com plete of our knowledge and belief it is a complete and correct return as required by law. It is an offence to knowingly make a false declaration in order to bring a charge, you must be proved that the suspect knew the return was inaccurate and acted dishonestly in signing the declaration. Although there is evidence to suggest the returns might have been enacted, there is insufficient evidence to prove that criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest. So no charges being brought in relation those allegations. Thanet south does remain under consideration. It is significant that these announcements are being made today because tomorrow is the deadline for submission of nominations and candidates in the General Election on the 8th ofjune and some of those candidates were in the mix on this. It is obviously significant the timing is best for them. We will bring you more on that as we get it. Let us go to norman smith who can bring some reaction. This has been rumbling on for some time. Just give us rumbling on for some time. Just give us the view from now. We have had no official statement from the Conservative Party but there has to be a huge relief because the fear was if charges had been brought against candidates that could plunge local campaigns in key marginal seats. These were marginal seats, it could have very most campaigns into complete chaos because i think the view was the candidate would have to stand down and then the tory party would have to parachute in new candidate in just 24 hours. Massive destruction, never mind the Knock On Effect it might have had to local campaigns in this election. The other side of it which, again, ithink this election. The other side of it which, again, i think will be a huge relief to the tory party is that it avoids what would have been a fairly significantjolt avoids what would have been a fairly significant jolt to the avoids what would have been a fairly significantjolt to the theresa may juggernaut with Notjust Significantjolt to the theresa may juggernaut with not just a distraction but really a fundamental sort of battering that she could have been on the Receiving End of over allegations the tory party had in effect bent the rules to enable them to spend more cash in key seats. Now both of them put to one side, they can, as it were, dust themselves down and move on. Interest and also to know today we have had pretty much not a squeak on the tory party and i think the reason for that if they were just standing back and waiting for this decision by the cps in the full knowledge that if the cbs had decided thejudges knowledge that if the cbs had decided the judges should be brought, then they would have had to be in full distances smoked a joint damping down what would have been a huge, huge story. They can regroup and get on with their Election Campaign and we may have some announcements from them later today. 0n the face of it, i can imagine huge relief in the tory high command. Just tell us a bit more about exactly what the allegations were. How complicated is the system for what gets filed where . It is complicated. In the sense that you could see it as a sort of a grey line about what is local and what is National Campaigning and that is the sort of defence conservative officials make, that it was in addition blunder, a technical error that the book, if you like, the bill for the battle bus into the wrong ledger. That is their sort of defence. The question for the cps was to try and establish what would be made of here, what was the thinking, what with the intent. Was this really just an thinking, what with the intent. Was this reallyjust an unfortunate error or was it a deliberate attempt to bend the rules to enable more money and more cash to be poured into these marginal seats and to get round the tight spending rules which are about, roughly about £15,000 in local campaigns and it is interesting, in the statement for the cps, they say yes these Election Expenses returns were inaccurate, there was no doubt about it, they we re there was no doubt about it, they were inaccurate but they cannot establish dishonesty. In other words, that local candidates or local agents deliberately did this in order to get round election rules and they pointed to the fact that local candidates were apparently advised by the party nationally that it was safer than to assume that the cost of the battle buses containing all the activists would be on the national ledger. Seeming to suggest that local officials probably knew nothing about the potential conflict and the potential confusion about where this money should be registered. Thank you very much. Let me just when your statement that has come through from alex chalke, the conservative candidate for cheltenham saying i always expected this to come to nothing because i acted with complete honesty and integrity throughout. I am pleased that common sense has finally prevailed. So that is the first comment through from one of those he was being looked at in this and has now heard this morning that the cps will not be bringing in any charges. Tom, Norman Out Riding By what the cps was considering when looking at this. This is complex stuff. There is something called the Electoral Commission which decides whether these Election Expenses returns are properly put in and the commission has already decided by fining the Conservative Party £70,000 that there were inaccuracies and bits left out of those expenses so mentions from the 2015 campaign. But the commission does not have the power to prosecute under what is called the representation of the people act and that is a more serious allegation and it really reads like this. You can prove that somebody broke the law if, and these are the words, to be better than knowledge and belief they did not make a complete and them as expected to the law. The keyword eschew their knowledge and belief so you have to prove that somebody knowingly put in a false election expense return. Today the Crown Prosecution Service has looked at 14 files from 14 different Police Forces around the country and decided that there is not enough evidence of that belief being wrongly used to put in these false returns and therefore there cannot have been a crime committed and therefore there can be no obligation. It does not mean on the fa cts obligation. It does not mean on the facts of the case all of these false expense returns have been cleared, but they were not false, it simply means that the people putting them m, means that the people putting them in, often the party agent in each constituency, did not know they were false. That will really hang on, as norman was saying, the kind of advice that was given by the National Party to local constituencies, but it is ok to you to include spending on, for example, battle buses and putting up activists in local hotels in their constituencies. It is ok to include that on the national expenses return rather than your candidates local expenses return. There is one outstanding issue though. 0ne expenses return. There is one outstanding issue though. One of the files from kent police, who are still trying to establish, refers to the way in which the campaign in thanet in the east of kent was handled. That remains something the cbs is considering. They actually came to the cps a bit later than many of the others. The cps they do not read into that, it is simply we need a bit more time to look at the file. It is not yet over that it is overin file. It is not yet over that it is over in those other 14 areas of the country. Thank you. A statement from the conservative spokesman. After a very very investigation, we are pleased that it is confirmed what we believe that this was the case. That the concept of candidates did nothing wrong. These were political motivated and anfounding these were political motivated and an founding complete set of Wasting Police time. We are glad this matter is finally resolved. People should be aware that making false state m e nts be aware that making false statements is an electrical offence as well as being defamatory. We will bring you more reaction to that a little bit later. President trump has sacked the head of the fbi james comey in a move that has shocked us politics. Mr comey was making a speech to bureau staff in los angeles, when he was handed a note which said hed been fired. Hed been leading an investigation into alleged links between the Trump Administration and russia. The white house said mr comey has been terminated and removed from office. Aleem maqbool reports. Absolutely explosive news out of washington tonight. This is a fox news alert fbi director, james comey, has been fired by the president of the United States. Americans have learned to expect almost anything from their president but this really was high drama. Fbi director, james comey, was not even in washington, he was addressing fbi staff in los angeles, when he learnt he had been sacked. A short while later, a letter arrived at fbi headquarters. You are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately. While i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation, i nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department Ofjustice that you are not able to affectively lead the bureau. It was signed, donald trump. Hes become more famous than me. Except the Trump Campaign was being investigated by the fbi for its links to russia. James comey was leading the investigation and now hes gone. Are people going to suspect cover up . Absolutely. If an independent Special Prosecutor is appointed there still can be some faith that we can get to the bottom of this, if not, everyone will suspect a cover up. Speaking on us tv, the president s adviser dismissed that notion. This has nothing to do with russia. It has everything to do with whether the current fbi director has the president s confidence and can faithfully and capably execute his duties. Last week giving testimony, james comey was accused of unfairly helping donald trump. He had announced just days before the election the fbi was investigating Hillary Clinton for her use of a private E Mail Server while she was secretary of state. This was terrible, it makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election. What mr comey didnt say before the election is that trumps russia ties were being investigated also. At campaign rallies, donald trump had been gushing in his praise of comeys move to announce the hillary investigation. It took guts for director comey to make the move that he made. But it was clear in recent days the fbi directors continued pursuit of that Russian Investigation was a huge irritation to the president. There are now questions swirling around about what he had found out. The shock waves from this decision are notjust being felt here at the fbi, but across this city and beyond. For his supporters, this is evidence that donald trump is a strong leader, but for many others, this just adds to the perception that this country is being run by a man who is intolerant of those who dont agree with them and who dont entirely do his bidding. 0ur North America Editorjon Sopel explained how events unfolded. As i understand it, james comey, the director of the fbi, was addressing agents in los angeles, an aide goes up to him and hands him a note and says i think you better read this. And he reads it, looks down, looks at the audience and says, i have just been fired. He knew nothing about it. No one else knew anything about it. It was a bolt Out Of The Blue from the white house. They didnt see it coming. And james comey had been determined to carry on with his work, to carry on the investigation and you talked about the white house saying, look, this was nothing to do with the enquiry into russia. As we all know in politics, perceptions matter. It looks like the person who was conducting the investigation has been fired by people who didnt want him to carry on with it. And its going to take an awful uphill struggle for the white house to convince the public that it was more innocent. Labour and the Liberal Democrats are both making multi billion pound funding pledges to tackle School Cash Shortages in england. The Labour Shadow Education Secretary said the conservatives had broken their contract with the public over School Funding, to the point that some schools were having to let teachers and Teaching Assistants go. The lib dems claimed their plans went further than labours and said details of how they would be funded would be provided In Due Course in the partys manifesto. The labour Education Plan promises £4. 8 billion to allow schools to keep up with rising costs. With the party saying theyll pay for the funding with a raise in Corporation Tax. The Liberal Democrats are promising £7 billion for education hey say the money will be used to protect per pupil Funding Levels meanwhile the snp are campaigning today on protecting the triple lock on pensions. With a look at those Education Plans from the labour and Liberal Democrats, heres our education editor bra nwen jeffreys. What do we want . Fairerfunding parents have made their feelings clear in marches and meetings, raising concerns about School Budgets and plans to change how money is shared across england. It has pushed englands schools onto the election agenda. Labour is promising £4. 8 billion for School Budgets in england, a real terms increase of over four years, with 335 million to make sure no school loses from a new funding formula. Corporation tax would rise from 19 to 26 by 2021 to pay for this and other educational promises. The lib dems say they would put £5. 8 billion into real terms rises in School Budgets, including making sure no school loses from the funding formula, and per pupil increases in further education. But it wont say how it will pay for this until their manifesto is published. What labour and Liberal Democrats are saying is really quite different from what current Government Policy is but, as ever, there is a big choice here. You either raise taxes and labour is talking about raising taxes significantly to pay for Better Public Services or you reduce spending on the Public Services and keep the tax burden down. Teaching unions have welcomed the promises. Schools in england have been facing financial pressures after 20 years of regular increases in funding. The conservatives say School Spending has reached record levels. Branwen jeffreys, bbc news. We can speak to jack dromey, labour candidate for the constituency of erdington. A big pledge on e