Severe disruption for rail passengers on routes to and from london euston, due to emergency repairs on downed overhead power lines. And in an exclusive interview with the bbc, former f1 World Champion nico rosberg tells us about his plans for the future. Good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. All four Board Members of the governments social Mobility Commission have stood down in protest at what they say is a lack of progress towards a fairer britain. Ex labour minister alan milburn, who chairs the commission, said he had little hope the current government could make the necessary progress. The resignations also include the former conservative cabinet anister gillian shephard. Downing street insists it is working to provide opportunities for all. Heres our political correspondent, jonathan blake. Your chances of getting a job, finding a good school for your children, and being able to afford somewhere decent to live issues at the heart of social mobility. And from day one in power, tackling inequality was a personal priority for theresa may. The mission to make britain a country that works for everyone means more than fighting these injustices. If you are from an ordinary working class family, life is much harder than many people in westminster realise. But for the former labour cabinet minister alan milburn, who was until now in charge of monitoring the governments progress on social mobility, not enough is being done. What is lacking is meaningful Political Action transferring good words into deeds. In the end what counts in politics it is not about what you talk about, it is what you do. Im afraid the divisions in britain are becoming wider socially, economically and geographically. Downing street said they already told mr milburn they planned to appoint a new chair, as his term in office had ended, so is the former ministers public resignation sour grapes or political point scoring . Well, alan milburn and i both care deeply about social mobility and equality of opportunities. He said that, and he said you wanted to keep him on. Is that true . I am not going to get into the discussions we had inside government. He had done a fantasticjob, but his term had come to an end. And i think it was about getting fresh blood into the commission. The education secretary went on to defend the governments record. We are seeing standards in our schools rise, and critically we are seeing the attainment gap in schools narrow this is the difference in outcomes between disadvantaged children and their better off peers. In the report they found childrens life chances vary in every part of england. Two thirds of areas where young people have the best chance of success are in london, but many rural, coastal and former Industrial Areas are being left behind. The midlands is the worst performing region in england. Deprived areas registered some of the highest support for leaving the european union. The government is facing criticism that it is so focused on brexit that it is ignoring the reasons which led people to vote for it. Jonathan blake, bbc news. Earlier i spoke to christian guy, formerly David Camerons special adviserfor social reform in number 10, and previously a member of the social Mobility Commission, and asked whether theresa may risked jeopardising the commitment she made to social mobility during her first speech as Prime Minister. I think it is easy to make a speech like that, especially in the moment when you become Prime Minister and take office. What you mustjudge a government on is what it does, as alan milburn said earlier. And the commission, which i used to be a part of, has taken a view that they are losing much more than they are winning now, and on balance they are saying they dont see much prospect for it. I think there are some good initiatives taking place in government but i dont know if there is the leadership, the dynamism, the courage to really grip some of britains deepest social challenges and make this a real priority of the government, and i think that is the challenge, and alan is flagging the issue of brexit, but youve also got i think a general lack of determination in number 10 and elsewhere to deal with the really tough issues. One of the problems, there is almost no ability to win legislation in the house of commons, so i think there are some fair challenges here and this is a big moment for the government. This is a big blow to the Prime Minister. So it is about the dynamics in parliament, its about the focus on brexit. Is it also about a lack of money . Money does matter, but you find money for the things you believe in. I mean, they have just found a lot of money, billions of pounds, to do a deal with the dup, so there is money there when you really want to make something a priority. It is not all about money. You can achieve an awful lot in government without spending big sums of taxpayers cash, but shortly after the budget i think alan and the team have taken a view that there is not the priority financially, or potentially in terms of focus, investment of time in government, that they want to see. And alan took a lot of flak for doing thatjob, and i used to be on this commission, and he got a lot of flak for working under a conservative government and then a coalition government, but he thought it was worth doing it because it was progress and there was a listening ear in the government. Not everything got done, but he thought he was making progress, and now i think he has taken the view that there is very little chance for progress, and that is a big blow, and this government has to respond now with massive determination to prove him wrong. The response is very important. You tweeted earlier, christian, that the commission was a rare source of big ideas for government, even if a thorn in the side at times needs strong replacement now. Do you think the government will appoint four new members to this board, or is there a chance they might scrap this commission potentially and try to come up with Something Else . They might do but i think they would require legislation and wouldnt make it through, to talk tactics for a second. This is a big moment. We had 10 12 commissioners at one stage and now there is zero, so they have to do something big. It is not always easy. I sat in number ten, and it is not always easy to have a Commission Like this challenging, making the big ideas, it is uncomfortable, but if you believe in it you have to bring in people like alan and the brilliance of alan is he was a former labour cabinet minister, the ability to have cross Party Support for this, so they now have to stack this commission with seriously impressive people who can reach across a divided politics and find the ideas. Because politics is a battle for ideas, and we need some big ideas now to reach the parts of this country that feel completely disconnected from politics, people working very hard butjust not seeing any return on that hard work, and that determination to better life for them and their families. So it is a big challenge for the government, and i think it would be bad to scrap it. In christian guy. Donald trump has denied asking the head of the fbi, james comey, leading brexit supporters have urged the Prime Minister not to settle the uks divorce bill unless the eu agrees to a series of conditions. The leave means leave group, which contains former cabinet ministers, says brussels must end the European Court ofjustices jurisdiction over the uk. It also wants freedom of movement to the uk for eu citizens to stop when britain leaves the bloc in march 2019. Theresa may is to hold more meetings next week on the terms of the uk exit. One of those signatories was the conservative mp jacob rees mogg. He told the Bbcs Andrew Marr show that paying the divorce bill reduces the uks hand in negotiations. Its very important that we dont hand over a great deal of money, unless we have an agreement. The risk is, that we pay the money from the day we leave, and that reduces our negotiating clout to get the trade deal finalised, if it hasnt been done before the 29th of march 2019, and that seems an obvious point. Jacob rees mogg. A donald trump has denied asking the head of the fbi, james comey, to drop an investigation into his former National Security advisor, Michael Flynn, after he was sacked for lying about his russia connections. In a tweet, mr trump said the allegation was just more fake news covering another comey lie. Mr trump was referring to a memo written by mr comey and presented to a congressional investigation saying that in february, the president had asked him to go easy on mr flynn. Wide and short on and said he drafted the treat, which he said was a mistake tweet. With me now is our washington correspondent laura bicker. This is all getting terribly complicated, and a lot of people saying it is rather odd that a lawyer would have drafted a tweet like this in the first place . It is rather odd. We didnt know that donald trump handed over his twitter account to anyone, but now it appears that his personal lawyer john dowd drafted this particular tweet, which is odd in itself because it seemed to imply that President Trump knew his National Security adviser had lied to the fbi which is a criminal offence, and then remember the day after he fired Michael Flynn, he has allegedly gone to james comey the former fbi director and urged him to drop the investigation into his former adviser. And then of course he fires james comey. That sequence of events has is what has led to many reason a few eyebrows and wondering whether or not because of this tweet President Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice. President trump is guilty of obstruction ofjustice. Now his personal lawyer says he wrote it. He says, i am out of the tweeting business. I did not mean to break news. But a lot of people will wonder whether this is suspicious and whether President Trump really did know that Michael Flynn had lied to the fbi. As you said, the timing is very significant, and donald trump is accompanying all of this with a series of tweets, basically a tirade against the fbi calling it the worst period in the agencys history. It undermines the whole investigation. He believes james comey made many mistakes, he believes the investigation into his former rival Hillary Clinton should have been far more rigorous, and he made a call to his supporters and he had cold for further investigations into Hillary Clinton. In fact he has done so recently. But i think if you look beyond that, this is something his supporters will love. The fact they believe Hillary Clinton was guilty, one of the reasons why they voted and wanted donald trump in this, and they believe their man. They want their man to be able to do what he wants to do in washington and not be undermined, in their view, by this russian investigation, so when it comes to Donald Trumps claims that this is a witchhunt and the fbi is in tatters, that is what it is doing in the mind of the supporters, undermining the entire investigation and elevating him in their eyes. Laura, away from domestic us politics, the biggest exercises of their time ever due to start tomorrow involving the us military and the south korean military. How does this all fit into what the us is doing in terms of its response to the threat from north korea . The National Security adviser here general mcmaster has said, make no mistake about it. He is saying north korea proves one of the greatest threats to the United States. When it comes to wear the United States goes from here, i have been speaking to a number of a nalysts been speaking to a number of analysts over the last week have been here in washington, who have been here in washington, who have been attending discussions. They believe that unless north korea sta rts believe that unless north korea starts to change course, unless the sanctions somehow start to work, that the two sides, north korea and the us, are heading closer to war. If kim jong un continues with his nuclear programme, which looks like you will, if those sanctions do not work, which it looks like they are not, then it does look like hes two sides, notjust not, then it does look like hes two sides, not just through miscalculation, but it does look like they could be heading closer to what people do not want in that region, either some kind of pre emptive strikes, perhaps some miscalculation does look like these two says. What they are saying in the us at the moment, this poses a serious threat and it is a race against time for kim jong un to change course, but right now that is just not looking likely. Thank you very much for all of that, laura bicker in washington. The Irish Foreign minister says his government cannot and will not allow the re emergence of a hard border with ireland. Simon coveney warned the brexit talks cannot move onto phase two without having some credible answers on the border issue. It comes amid reports that the irish cabinet are to hold an emergency meeting ahead of tomorrows talks between theresa may and jean claude juncker. Earlier i spoke with our correspondent Louise Cullen in belfast. She explained what the Irish Government is hoping for. Well, annita, Simon Coveney, the minister for foreign affairs, and the recently appointed irish deputy Prime Minister, the tanaiste, has said ireland is simply seeking reassurances there wont be regional divergences between it and Northern Ireland post brexit. He said they need an agreed wording ahead of the crucial eu summit later in december, on the 14th and 15th, and the deadline set tomorrow by donald tusk ahead of that working lunch with may and juncker is rather focusing minds of course. He says ireland is asking questions that need credible answers before any brexit negotiations can move on, and donald tusk said of course if the uk offer on the border is not acceptable to ireland it will not be to the eu. At that special Cabinet Meeting tomorrow morning in dublin Simon Coveney and the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar depending the results of any negotiations over the border, but that has drawn some criticism from politicians in Northern Ireland, hasnt it . It has indeed. The former Prime Minister tony blair is one of the architects of the good friday agreement, which reaches its 20th birthday next year, and he said that agreement is now at risk. He said the uk and irish membership of the eu was central to it, as was the concept of free movement. Now, a hard border, he said, would create tensions on the island, but ian paisley of the dup who of course are the tories partners in government, he said that is simply a rekindling of project fear. The headlines on bbc news the chair of the governments social Mobility Commission quits, with the rest of the board warning that the Prime Minister is failing to build a fairer britain. Donald trump hits out at the fbi in a series of angry tweets, claiming the agencys reputation was in tatters and the worst in history. Children in england are to get to Access Mental Health support at school or college under government plans to improve services. Sport centre, heres 0lly. Sport now, and for a full round up from the bbc sport centre, heres 0lly. England are in trouble in the 2nd ashes test, australia declared a42 for 8 on the second day, and england, who are already one down in the series, closed on 29 for 1. From adelaide, heres our Sports Correspondent andy swiss. Alistair cooke and games. Vince, w, w , e e w