Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News At One 20171103

Really shortened down by four years is potentially fantastic news. Questions for cabinet minister priti patel whos understood to have held official meetings in israel, without telling the foreign office. And, a parting gesture why a twitter employee shut down president trumps account on their final day at work. In sport on bbc news, former Manchester United defender patrice evra faces a lengthy ban after appearing to kick a supporter of his current team marseilles last night. Good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. The labour Leaderjeremy Corbyn is under pressure to explain why he promoted the mp Kelvin Hopkins into his shadow cabinet, a few months after hopkins had been reprimanded, following allegations that hed sexually harrassed a young activist. The mp for luton north has been suspended while an investigation is carried out. Ava etemadzadeh said she was left feeling powerless and isolated after he was promoted the year after she complained about him. Meanwhile, sir Michael Fallon, who resigned as defence secretary earlier this week, has categorically denied making inappropriate sexual comments to the leader of the commons, andrea leadsom. Our Political Correspondent iain watson has the latest on the continuing allegations of misconduct at westminster. He isa he is a close ally ofJeremy Corbyn, and nominated him for the Party Leadership but now the luton mp Kelvin Hopkins has been suspended from the parliamentary labour party. Thats because of allegations made by this labour activist who told the bbc he had acted inappropriately towards her. The first incident happened on campus, and he hugged me very tightly and rubbed himself against me, made me feel extremely uncomfortable and it was a revolting act. The second incident was in parliament when i went to have a political conversation with him and he told me that, lets not talk about politics, do you have a boyfriend and he also mentioned that he also said that if nobody was in his office he would have taken me there. I was absolutely shocked. She says she also received a suggestive text and took her concerns to another labour mp who reported them to the most senior figure in charge of labour party discipline, the then chief whip. Kelvin hopkins was reprimanded and subs kweptly temporarily promoted to the shadow cabinet. That made me feel powishless and isolated and alone. Last year around 80 ofJeremy Corbyns mps voted that they had no confidential in his leadership, that meant he had trouble filling some of his front rank jobs. Meant he had trouble filling some of his front rankjobs. Kelvin hopkins was happy to help out. But i have been very reliably informed that Jeremy Corbyn did indeed know that Kelvin Hopkins had been reprimanded before he promoted him to the shadow cabinet, although i am also being told he wasnt made aware of some of the more dramatic aspects of this case. Jeremy corbyn wasnt any more forthcoming today but labour point out that Kelvin Hopkins has now been suspended and new more robust proceedings for reporting harassment have been put in place. Were you aware of the allegations against mrhopkins . Goodbye. Some say even recent reforms arent adequate. Mrhopkins . Goodbye. Some say even recent reforms arent adequatem needs a big injection of independence from a specialist agency, a specialist sexual violence, Sexual Harassment agency so violence, Sexual Harassment agency so people can feel when they first report theres no fear or favour and also that when any arbitration of anything below a criminal threshold is being decided on that there is a specialist in the room advising any panel. And she was surprised at Kelvin Hopkins had been given a shadow cabinet role. |j Kelvin Hopkins had been given a shadow cabinet role. I dont think i would have promoted him and i know the victim felt a little bit bereft by his promotion. Kelvin hopkins hasnt responded to requests from a statement. Its not just hasnt responded to requests from a statement. Its notjust labour under scrutiny. Some newspapers carried new allegations about sir Michael Fallon, suggesting he made lewd remarks some years ago to andrea leadsom. He categorically denies this and she wont comment. But beyond specific allegations, the bigger question is what reforms Major Political parties are willing to agree to enable victims of harassment to come forward and receive support . Lets get latest. This cuts across all parties. Is there a sense that more must come out of the working group on monday, that there has to be some real action here, that tackles this across westminster . Yes, thats very much the case. I think we have been hearing from senior political figures saying things like this is a change moment, things like this is a change moment, things will be very different at westminster because of what we heard. But at times i have to say it feels like you are living through a real life house cards. I mentioned Michael Fallon and andrea leadsom, there are also allegations that she was instrumental in trying to get Michael Fallon sacked. Now as we saw there, we tried to get a comment, she left her home without commenting. But downing street have issued a statement making it very clear that wasnt the case. There is a feeling on one hand that downing street are on the defensive and i think what theresa may wants to do next week is to look to the future rather than the past, get these cross party rather than the past, get these cross party talks under way, try to get the system reformed here at westminster and perhaps inject into it as we heard from the labour mp Jess Phillips there, inject this idea of independence, that people can go beyond the party whips, go beyond the Party Machines and have their concerns, allegations treated seriously. Thank you for now. An Army Sergeant accused of trying to kill his wife by sabotaging her parachute has begun giving evidence. Victoria cilliers suffered multiple injuries when her parachute failed to open during a jump in wiltshire in 2015. Emile cilliers denies all the charges. Duncan kennedy is following the case at Winchester Crown court. Whats the court been hearing so far today . Well, emile has only gone into the witness box in the last 30 minutes or so. He has been questioned by his defence barrister. Shes trying to get a picture of what his life was like before all these alleged events took place, about how he did training in the army, where he became a physical instructor, and how he was married toa instructor, and how he was married to a woman called carly and their life really in the army, him training to be an instructor, their move to larkhill, various other domestic arrangements, if you like. Trying to paint a picture of his life before these alleged events in april 2015. The court has heard that he eventually separated from his wife carly and. Its the events after that the court will move onto later today. As you said there, Emile Cilliers married victoria in 2011. She had two children together. But its the prosecution case that Emile Cilliers in the space of one week tried to kill victoria cilliers on two separate occasions, once at their home by fiddling with a gas fixture at their home and once a week later in this parachute incident in wiltshire at an airfield. The prosecution case is in that incident he tampered with victoria cilliers parachute by playing with strings on the main and reserve chute and when she made the jump reserve chute and when she made the jump on Easter Sunday of april 2015, both those main chute and the reserve failed and victoria cilliers fell 11,000 reserve failed and victoria cilliers fell 4,000 feet into a field suffering multiple injuries. At some point during his evidence today and possibly into monday he will be asked about these events, alleged events. We heard yesterday in front of thejury events. We heard yesterday in front of the jury that Emile Cilliers denied to police soon after the accident that he did not do it. We have heard in the sense a secondhand account from Emile Cilliers through police statements denying these charges and one expects that during the course of the live evidence today and into monday that he will be requested about this. But he formally denies two counts of attempted murder and one count of wrecklessly endangering life. Thank you. Bbc news has learned that the International Development secretary, priti patel, held a series of meetings in israel to discuss government business without telling the foreign office. She was accompanied by a leading pro israeli conservative lobbyist. Downing street has said priti patel has done nothing wrong. 0ur Diplomatic Correspondent James Landale is with me. This on the face of it surely extremely unusual, james . Yeah, its unusual. Priti patel was on holiday in israel but took two days out to have these meetings. As you say, there were no Civil Servants or diplomats present but she was accompanied by somebody who is the president of the conservative friends of israel, represents one side of the argument in the region. Now obviously what some mps have said is is this a breach of the ministerial code of conduct . You cant have a perceived conflict of interest between your private interests and your public interests. Now this morning downing street was asked about this and said, this was asked about this and said, this was a private holiday and there is no investigation going on. But this morning both the labour party and the liberal democrats have now formally called for the cabinet 0ffice formally called for the Cabinet Office to conduct an investigation into these meetings, to find out what happened, urging the Prime Minister to do that because this isnt the Prime Ministers gift, one bit of support, though, from Boris Johnson this morning, the foreign secretary has felt the need to tweet in support of priti patel saying that shes a good friend, and she they work closely together and its quite right she meets with people and organisations overseas. All right, james, thank you. The government says it will speed up the process of getting new, life changing medicines available on the nhs. A panel of experts is to choose five treatments for fast track approval in england every year. Ministers hope it could halve the time it takes to get new drugs to patients. 0ur Health Editor hugh pym reports. Andrew has a rare eye condition. His sight is getting steadily worse. There are new drugs which could save it but it can take as much as seven yea rs it but it can take as much as seven years to get clearance and adoption by the nhs. At some point i expect that i will go blind. But there are trials of new drugs at the moment and knowing that they could be ready byi and knowing that they could be ready by i might have to wait seven years to get access, in that time i could have gone blind. There have been significant advances in medical technology as well as research on new drugs and treatments, but the big question is how rapidly can they be brought into nhs hospitals for the benefit of all patients . This Health Minister says the government has an answer, he was visiting Hammersmith Hospital in london today to see new technology for heart procedures. The idea is to cut delays in the approval process for breakthrough drugs and treatments. At the moment there are various stages that any product, whether its a drug or a device, whatever it is, has to go through in terms of Regulatory Approval or cost effectiveness and so on, commercial negotiations with the nhs, the idea is to bring them all together to run in parallel which will make the process operate much more quickly so those things that really do have life changing impacts on people can be brought forward sooner. On people can be brought forward sooner. Under whats is the accelerated access pathway it will be cut from as much as seven years to three. Next year five new drugs and treatments will be selected for fast track approval. This number could be increased annually in future. Pharmaceutical companies and Technology Suppliers have been frustrated by the slow pace in getting new products into the nhs, compared to other Healthcare Systems. Sometimes the pace of adoption isnt as fast as we would like. The accelerated access review will give the opportunity for Game Changing devices, things that can makea Game Changing devices, things that can make a significant difference to patients lives to come into the healthcare patients lives to come into the healthca re system faster patients lives to come into the Healthcare System faster than they otherwise would, which has to be a good thing for patients. Medical charities have welcomed the news, though with some reservations. We would feel that the government could go even further still. We have some concerns that drugs could be overlooked as part of the scheme. The department of health have said about five drugs are looked at every year but there are so many emerging treatments on the horizon, we dont think five is going to be enough. Health campaigners say its a start but they want to know more detail about the new process and theyve noted that the policy does not at this stage involve any new money for the nhs in england to spend on drugs and treatments. Hugh pym, bbc news. Yesterdays rise in Interest Rates means nearly four million households face higher mortgage payments. But what about savers . They should see their money start to earn a little more interest. But some of the countrys biggest banks are yet to confirm that they will pass on the full rise to customers. Simon gompertz is with me. To what extent does it happen, do people see an increase . Those big banks dont seem to be doing it yet. The likes of hsbc, barclays, lloyds, the big ones have said rates are under review for savers. Here is some of the ones who have moved already. Nationwide, tsb, yorkshire, skipton and newcastle, west brom, coventry, theyve said to a greater or lesser extent theyre raising Interest Rates. The governor of the bank of england said that providers must pass on the gain from higher Interest Rates to savers. Its early to say the big banks are defying the bank of england in this. We have to wait, theyll review it and we will see what they pass on and to what extent, whether its the full quarter of a percent. People watching who do have savings, not great for them the last few years, what should they be doing . L great for them the last few years, what should they be doing . A quarter ofa what should they be doing . A quarter of a percent is a tiny amount. The important thing there is that the differences between different savings accounts, even within banks, are much greater than that. Here are some examples of very low savings accounts. The berkeley s everyday saver, 0. 05 . Those are the tiny rates. People have large sums of money in those accounts. Regardless of the. 2596 those accounts. Regardless of the. 25 increase in impressed rates, it is important to have a look at better rates. You should be taking advantage. Interest rates. Our top story this lunchtime. The labour Leaderjeremy Corbyn is under pressure to explain why he promoted an mp who was accused of Sexual Harassment. And still to come. Uefa charges patrice evra with violent conduct, after he kicked one of his teams supporters in the head. Coming up in sport, england captain joe root believes he and his team mates will strike the right balance in fear that it is join the upcoming ashes series and stay focused on their cricket. Eight ministers from the Catalan Government have spent the night in prison, after they were charged with rebellion for holding the independence referendum. An arrest warrant could be issued today for catalonias sacked leader, carles puigdemont, who is now in belgium. Thousands of catalans staged protests in barcelona last night, saying the ministers had become political prisoners. 0ur correspondent, tom burridge, has been to meet one family in the city where opinions on the future are divided. There is flash photography in his report. Last week they ran catalonias government. Eight former ministers spent last night behind bars. They faced charges of rebellion. And were denied bail by a judge at spains high court. Their supporters streamed down to catalonias parliament. Stunned as the news filtered through. Whether the case is politically motivated or not, it will polarise opinions further. Which, even in sleepy catalan villagers, is now often on public display. The abuse held at geordie, a Pro Independence counsellor. At a local school where a month or he, arms crossed at the front, led the human wall locking spains civil guard. Blocking it is because of that disputed referendum that his political leaders are now in jail ahead of their trial. Translation it is a really sad situation. It reminds me more of a repressive state like turkey than a country in the european union. It is not democratic to lock up people for their ideas. Lively discussions at home as well. This family split on that key question. His sister is in favour of independence but his mum and dad are wavering. Spains laws have to be followed, he tells me, and those that dont should be prosecuted. In madrid, the argument yea rs has prosecuted. In madrid, the argument years has been that the constitution, the countrys rules, must be followed. But a spanish writer who is against independents believe they have got it wrong. They have actually being fuelling the engine of Catalonian Independence by their own intransigence and also in their own intransigence and also in the gestures and words. A manifest lack of respect, even an insulting attitude towards the catalan people. Almost every day a new chapter in the catalan crisis. On the horizon now, regional elections. With Pro Independence leaders in jail, divisions below the surface are ever more entrenched. And we can speak to tom now. It is an extraordinary period, isnt it . What is your assessment of the mood and the way in which these arrests, these detentions, might have an impact on the vote which is a few weeks away . Really interestingly, the Pro Independence cata la n interestingly, the Pro Independence catalan leaders, who have been denied bail by a judge pending a possible future trial, could stand in those elections, even if they remain in prison. So could Carles Puidgemont and four other former cata la n puidgemont and four other former catalan ministers who are in brussels, if they come back to spain, are brought back to spain, i should say. The process of bringing them back might not be straightforward. We expect a european arrest warrant to be issued shortly by a spanish judge. European arrest warrant to be issued shortly by a spanishjudge. Even when it ends up on the desk of an official in brussels there could be a period where Carles Puidgemont and his colleagues could appeal. They claim the case against them is politically motivated. A lot of people across spain and other spanish Political Parties deeply reject that argument. They say spain is upholding its laws and those Pro Independence leaders really push things too far. They declared independence unilaterally and went against the fundamental values which makes spains marcus what it is today. It had again, two polar opposite divisions of events in the last 24 hours which feeds into the sense that catalonia, with all the politics and legal process, gets more and more divided by the day. Many thanks. Court documents have revealed that the remains of the moors murderer, ian brady, have been buried at sea. The paperwork shows brady, who died in may, was cremated without ceremony in southport last week. The high court had intervened to ensure his ashes werent scattered on saddleworth moor, where four of his victims were buried. Shares in the tech giant, apple, have hit a record high. Last night, the Company Announced it had made sales worth £40 billion in the three months to september as the new iphone x arrives in shops. Our technology correspondent, rory cellan jones, is here. More success even than anticipated. How do you read these results . Over the years we keep expecting a stumble from apple, particularly the iphone which has grown into the worlds is profitable product. There was a stumble last year when sales dipped a bit. The latest results show Sales Holding up getting ever better in fact. They launched two new models, the iphone 8 and the iphone x which comes out today. It was thought iphone 8000 be disappointed because people would wait for the new phone that they have done really well. The company is now predicting a record quarter for the months ahead. Incredibly self confident. The market seems to believe in the company. Given that, how important is the launch of the latest model today . The iphone x, you could think of it as risky. It costs £10 0 0 you could think of it as risky. It costs £1000 and upwards. It has radical new technology and face recognition system for logging in full study does not have a home button. Users will have to get used to something completely new and incredibly expensive. There were queues around the shops this morning. Predictions are for new sales. They seem to have pulled off a trick yet again in persuading people to part with an unconscionable amount of money for a phone which may be better than others but rivals would disagree. But they keep on pulling off the same trick. Thank you. The Manchester United manager, jose mourinho, has been questioned by a spanishjudge investigating accusations that he evaded tax in 2011 and 2012, while he was in charge of real madrid. After the brief hearing, he said hed told the judge that, two years ago, he paid an amount demanded by the authorities to settle the matter. Mr mourinho is one of several high profile figures in football whose tax arrangements are being investigated in spain. The former Manchester United defender, patrice evra, could be facing a lengthy ban after being sent off for kicking a fan in the head. Footage shows evra, who now plays for marseille, attacking one of his supporters before a Europa League match in portugal. Our sports correspondent, katie gornall, reports. It was a warm up that boiled over. Ahead of marseille Europa League match in portugal, patrice evra became involved in an angry exchange with the clubs fans. As some supporters scaled the stands to confronting he was pulled away by team mates before returning to a p pa re ntly team mates before returning to apparently aimed kick at the head of one of them. The defender was sent to the stands by the referee and it is still unclear exactly what prompted his reaction. Translation the first thing i can say is when you are as experienced player as patrice evra, you cannot react to insult, even if they are unacceptable react to insult, even if they are u na cce pta ble full we react to insult, even if they are unacceptable full we had the chance to have more than 500 fans here but there was a pseudo fan. He is not a supporter of marseille. He insulted patrice and this is unacceptable. These actions bring back memories of Eric Cantonas is as kung fu kick at selhurst park in 1995. The Manchester United player launched adequate palace supporter who had taunted him after he had been sent off. It led to a nine month ban, still one of the longest in football. Ca ntona would still one of the longest in football. Cantona would return to play for united but a former team mate of evra believes his future is uncertain. I think it is difficult to see him continue. He will most likely move on to a different club, different league, most likely i would say. Evra can expect to receive an extended ban when the disciplinary body needs to decide his case next week. With a Champions League medal and several League Titles to his name, the 36 year old has enjoyed plenty of success and will hope this is not the final chapter. The social media giant, twitter, was a little less busy last night as one of its biggest names fell silent. The account of president donaldj trump, who is famous for daily tweets lambasting opponents, was closed for 11 minutes. The company said it was deliberately shut down by an employee on their last day at the company. Our correspondent nick higham joins me now. What exactly happened . What exactly happened . He is of course, donald trump, a very enthusiastic tweeter. He has 40 million followers and uses it to the little opponents and sounding off, often in the small hours of the morning. Anyone who searched for his account last night, about seven oclock washington and im and 11 oclock washington and im and 11 oclock here in britain, got this message. It was off only for 11 minutes. Twitter said it had been inadvertently deactivated due to human error. Later they expanded it to say this employee, Customer Service employee, on their last day at work had disabled it, take the countdown. Honestly not a fan of donald trump. One assumes not. What was the reaction to the 11 minute disappearance . Trump may not have noticed it that he tweeted around 6am washington time saying, i guess the word is finally getting out and having an impact. That sounds iqs boasting about his influence on twitter. Many of his critics acted with glee. There were lots of means of Television Stars celebrating. One suggested the celebrations proved once again that liberals love censorship and hate free speech. Others worried, saying this appears to be the case of some potentially hijacking the account. That throws questions about security procedures into question. That might end badly. The president is well and truly back on the site now. A barrage of tweets picking up from where he left off last night, many about revelations of the Democratic Campaign distracting opponents. He is trying to distract everyone from the investigation going on into his own campaign linked with russia. Time for a look at the weather. Heres ben rich. Good afternoon. Plenty of bonfire parties going on this weekend. Will the weather give us fireworks . It will step up a gear after a quiet end to the week. Very still conditions, giving fog in places. There is a