Street and his labour rival, richard parker. Votes rechecked, a recount in coventry and this result in the last hour or so. The number of votes recorded for each. Weve waited all day for this moment. Its happening now. The result. And i do hereby declare that richard parker. Cheering this is the most important thing i will ever do. This week, people here voted for the person and the party. | they recognise that a labour mayor can make a positive. Difference in this region. So where do i go . A winner and a loser and the finest of margins. Mr street, commiserations. What do you put your loss down to . Very straightforward, chris, isnt it . We didnt persuade enough people across the West Midlands of our record and our plans for the future to give them confidence to go and vote on thursday. Ive always said it was my campaign and we didnt get over the line. Bluntly, is rishi sunak to blame . No, this was my campaign. Idid it. The famous words. I did it my way, and it was always going to be
and coming up on bbc news: qualification at stake for britain at the olympics. we ll tell you why it matters for england and scotland later at hampden. good afternoon. the home secretary james cleverly is in rwanda signing a treaty this lunchtime on the controversial plan to send some asylum seekers there. downing street hopes it will remove legal obstacles to the scheme after the supreme court ruled last month that it s unlawful. the rwanda plan is aimed at deterring migrants coming to the uk on small boats. mr cleverly is the third home secretary to visit the country, but so far not a single migrant has actually been sent there. in a moment, we ll hear from our political editor chris mason, who s in rwanda with the home secretary, but first, this report from helen catt. the home secretary, touching down in rwanda this morning. it s where the government still hopes to send some people who arrive in the uk illegally to seek asylum. despite the supreme court ruling last month
in fact the longest serving conservative defence secretary ever, ben wallace, who stepped down from his job in the summer citing the cost of what he said was putting work and country ahead of my family. a member of the government in some form ever since the conservatives came to power in 2010, he can now reflect on what he s learned about politics and about defence as he prepares for a life outside westminster. ben wallace, welcome to political thinking. thank you. we are speaking a few hours after the chancellor unveiled what he called his largest ever tax cut for workers. if you were running at the next election, would you be preparing for a spring election? no. i would probably be waiting for september. i think it is a good autumn statement. jeremy has gone on the right place around national insurance, effectively rewarding effort, work and trying people who we need to generate wealth and pay tax receipts so we can have more to spend and grow the economy. i think he has do
It was literally a putrid soup of body parts and rain and mud and everything. It was just awful, i think. And your father also spoke about the horses he went into battle with. One of his horses was fatally wounded in shrapnel or something. And, this particular horse, i think he was probably quite fond of or something and he sat with it for a few minutes until it died. They werent allowed to put them out of their misery, they werent allowed to use any ammunition. Because the ammunition was all supposed to be kept for the enemy. So, your mother is believed to be the oldest surviving world war i widow. Shes coming up to 97. There was a 25 year age gap between my father and her. Obviously not well enough to be here today. So, it was quite nice to be here for her. Very poignant. Its amazing really. And ijust feel so grateful that my father survived. I wouldnt be here otherwise. It is wonderful really and i think hed be very proud. Good evening, youre watching bbc news, im 0lly Foster At The
It was literally a putrid soup of body parts and rain and mud and everything. It was just awful, i think. And your father also spoke about the horses he went into battle with. One of his horses was fatally wounded in shrapnel or something. And, this particular horse, i think he was probably quite fond of or something and he sat with it for a few minutes until it died. They werent allowed to put them out of their misery, they werent allowed to use any ammunition. Because the ammunition was all supposed to be kept for the enemy. So, your mother is believed to be the oldest surviving world war i widow. Shes coming up to 97. There was a 25 year age gap between my father and her. Obviously not well enough to be here today. So, it was quite nice to be here for her. Very poignant. Its amazing really. And ijust feel so grateful that my father survived. I wouldnt be here otherwise. It is wonderful really and i think hed be very proud. Good evening, youre watching bbc news, im 0lly Foster At The