The National Grid says issues with two generators caused the outage. Tonight, the regulator is demanding answers. Uk growth falls for the first time in six and half years, but the chancellor says the fundamentals of the economy remain strong. A Church Warden who tricking a man into changing his will, has been found guilty of his murder. We report from inside kashmir, as tensions rise between india and pakistan over the disputed territory. And its a baptism of fire for newly promoted norwich, thrashed 4 1 at liverpool as the new premier League Season gets under way. And coming up on sportsday on bbc news, arsenals mesut ozil and Sead Kolasinac will not play in their first match against newcastle because of security reasons. It follows an attempted carjacking last month. Good evening. England and wales suffered a major power cut today, affecting homes, transport networks and hospitals. In all, nearlyi million households we re all, nearlyi million households were affected. The National Grid says issues with two Power Generators caused the outage but the problem has now been resolved. However, thousands of passengers we re however, thousands of passengers were shut out of some of the busiest train stations or left stranded in carriages. One hospital was forced onto an emergency back up system which failed. The worst hit areas we re which failed. The worst hit areas were in the south west of england, south wales and the midlands, where half a Million People were affected. In london and the south east, 300,000 lost power, while parts of the north east experienced serious problems. On some routes, trains came to a standstill, and in some areas traffic lights were knocked out. Newcastle airport lost power for 15 minutes, and at ipswich hospital, a back up generator failed, after the power went off. Electricity has now been restored. Tonight, there are questions about why the two Power Generators failed, and what can be done to prevent future power failures. Katy austin reports. Commuters navigating Clapham Junction station in darkness. This evenings power cuts did not last long but the impact affected more than a Million People. Including thousands of train passengers across the country, some unable to board. |j am going to hang around and see if they put the trains back on and fix they put the trains back on and fix theissue they put the trains back on and fix the issue but if not, im going to have to find somewhere to stay tonight and get a train tomorrow. No one has come over and spoken to me. No one seems to know what is going on. If you go and ask for help, no one really knows what is going on at all. While some were stuck on trains. I was on a train to edinburgh through to london, we stopped in the countryside for an hour and stopped in the countryside for an hourand a stopped in the countryside for an hour and a half with no information. We were starting to conserve water but now they are sending us back to peterborough station where we are just going to have to be, i presume, dumped off stoplights london kings cross is one of the countrys Busiest Railway stations. Passengers turned up this evening to find delays and cancellations and have now been told services are unlikely to resume today. Reports of a problem emerged shortly after 5pm. Uk Power Networks tweeted it was aware of a power cut which it believed was due to a National Grid network failure. It supplies london and the south east and said 300,000 homes were affected in that region, but it didnt end there. Half a Million People lost power in the area western Power Distribution covers, south west england, south wales and the midlands. 110,000 customers served by northern power grid in the north east, 26,000 supplied by Electricity North West in areas from penrith in cumbria to stockport in greater manchester, and 16,000 sse customers in central and southern england, and tens of thousands more were affected in cheshire and merseyside. National grid said the issue was caused by the loss of two generators that connect to the gb Transmission System which led to a fall in the frequency of the electricity system and it had to disconnect part of the network. It said that by 6 30pm, all demand was restored by the Distribution Network operators, and the system is operating normally. By then, the loss of power had affected drivers, too, with some traffic lights out. Newcastle airport experienced power issues, too, as did ipswich hospital, where the back up generator failed. Did ipswich hospital, where the backup generator failed. My mum got stuck in the lift in the scan, so we we re stuck in the lift in the scan, so we were looking at her ten feet off the ground, wondering how on earth she was going to get into the lift, because it wasnt working, or get down again, and it was quite a terrifying 20 minutes, wondering what is going to happen, are we going to have to get the Emergency Services . People whose friday evening journeys turned into a nightmare will be wondering how this could have happened. Katy austin, bbc news. Ben ando is at Kings Cross Station but first, alex dunlop is at ipswich hospital. Is it any clearer what happened today during a power failure . Not yet, this is a major hospital, 650 beds and an a e unit so a power cut of this scale is potentially very serious. They lost power at about 5pm and critically, one of the three generators here did not work. For whatever reason, and they are still trying to investigate, there was a complete power outage across a 48 acre site for between 20 30 minutes. The hospital is keen to stress that at no point where patients put at risk and they were able to carry out procedures and observations manually, like Blood Pressure testing and giving oxygen and so forth. They say that at no point did they have to transfer hospital patients to other hospitals. However, other procedures like x rays, scans, could not be carried out and they have apologised to patients that they had to be postponed. I guess it is a blessing that this happened in the early evening outside of normal hours when planned operations are taking place. The first priority, they say, is for patients, and the second priority for the hospital will be to find out how this happened and to stop it happening again. Going to kings cross, the power seems to have been restored so are commuters finally getting home with yellow no, they are not, is the short answer, certainly at kings cross, at the moment, we have been told no trains are running. Thousands are stuck here and thousands have been stuck on trains. At the moment, for all these passengers, the question is, do they try to find alternative routes home . Tickets are being accepted on other routes out of london, for example from st pancras on east midlands trains. Do they find a hotel or look at getting a bus or taxi or something . Lots of people here are quite angry and i think questions are being asked about how robust our Power Network is. The bbc understands that two power stations failed, one in cambridgeshire, a conventional gas turbine station, and the other a wind turbine station in the north sea. Emergency protocols kicked in to protect the system but that meant a power outage to a large part of the network, causing problems for houses, hospitals and of course, for the transport network. Thank you for joining us. Ben ando at kings cross and alex dunlop at ipswich hospital. Katy austin is with me now and many questions tonight about how on earth this could have happened. That is right, National Grids statement indicated that actually, cutting off power as it did limited the impact and the possible damage caused by the problems with those two generators, thus allowing power to be switched back on promptly. But there will inevitably be questions about how something on this scale, how disruption on this scale, could be caused. There will be questions for the National Grid as to their resilience and how this could happen, and this evening, the Energy Regulator ofgem said it has asked foran regulator ofgem said it has asked for an urgent, detailed report from National Grid so it can understand what went wrong and decide what further steps need to be taken. That could include enforcement action. Thank you forjoining us. For the first time in six and half years, the uk economy has shrunk, falling in the three months tojune by 0. 2 . The contraction in gdp, or the total value of goods and Services Made and sold by all sectors of the economy, was worse than some had expected. But the chancellor sajid javid says the fundamentals of the economy remain resilient and strong, and hes not expecting a recession. Our economics editor faisal islam reports. This is a stockpile, reams of printing material, labels, plastics, inks shipped into this leicester food labelling company to beat the last brexit deadline. This across tens of thousands of british warehouses boosted the economy before march and took away from it between april and june, helping leave the british economy shrinking for the first time in years. For now it isnt generally expected the uk is in its first formal recession, that is two consecutive quarters of the year where the economy gets smaller, since the great financial crisis a decade ago, but this is the first shrinkage over a three month period for six and a half years, when the crisis in the eurozone was raging. The First Quarter of this year was flatted by the effect of billions of pounds of stock piling which explains some, not all of todays weakness. The question now is what happens in the next three months . What a welcome for a new chancellor of the exchequer, who played down his shock on a visit to the National Grid. No one will be surprised by todays figures, there was a general expectation growth in this quarter would be slower than the previous quarter and the important thing is the fundamentals of the uk economy remain very strong. Can you rule out a recession . Im not expecting recession at all, and dont take my word for it, there isnt a single leading forecaster that is expecting a recession. The east midlands is a hub for logistics and freight and in these lorries and giant storage sheds is an economy trying to deal with the prospect of more fundamental changes to the way this country trades. The governments argument that the disappointing numbers are down to the fact that in warehouses up and down the country they had to wind down the extraordinary level of stockpiled parts and products for the brexit that never was in march. But this is only part of the story. A recession, although not likely, is now possible. The economy far from turbo charged at a sensitive point. Here in nottinghamshire, the chancellor was meeting apprentices and acknowledged a brexit factor in the numbers but not a jolt from the rising chances of no deal in october. Most of all we want to bring certainty which is why we must leave on october 31 and if that means leaving with no deal, that is the way its going to be. It is the certainty of no deal that is impacting on intentions, that is what the bank of england has said. Businesses want certainty around brexit. But what sort of certainty . The labelling boss in leicester says he is fed up of stockpiling and he has delayed investing to fit out his new factory. We went through this before march and now between march and october. We have had a lot of unstable, uncertainty, and the cloudy skies are upon us again. We cant move forward or back, we are stuck in a rut, thats where we are. Expectation is britain avoids a formal recession by growing but with the pound tumbling again, nothing seems too certain in the british economy. Just picking up on that final point, sterling has taken a bit of a hammering today. Are the markets feeling a recession may be down the line . It is worth focusing on the currency. We have heard it come down bit by bit over the last two weeks and certainly in late trading in new york, where they have just closed, it appears to be at its lowest close against the euro since late 2008, at 1. 07 euros. It was at 1. 18 euros just a few weeks ago. It is pretty low against the dollar, too. That has a tangible impact, whether in technical recession or not, it is a measure of the strength of the economy, if the pound falls like this, then that does transfer through to import prices, through to petrol prices, through to food prices and other things, too. In terms of whether or not we are in recession, the expectation is that we are not. But that number alone was, you know, the chancellor said it was not a surprise. I think the movement in the currency markets show that many people were surprised by that. Hopefully not a recession but still showing the economy is in a tough squeeze and the brexit uncertainty is weighing heavily. Thank you forjoining us. Borisjohnson says preparing for a no deal brexit, will be his top priority, and that it will also be the top priority for the civil service. In a letter to all Civil Servants, the Prime Minister called on them to make rapid and urgent preparations for leaving the eu with no agreement. It comes as the labour Leaderjeremy Corbyn has called on the uks most senior Civil Servant to intervene if mrjohnson pursues a no deal brexit in the middle of a general Election Campaign, when mps will be powerless to intervene. Heres our political correspondent, jonathan blake. Good evening, good evening, everybody. He couldnt be clearer. We need to get brexit done by october the 31st. The Prime Minister has promised brexit will happen by the current deadline with or without a deal. No ifs or buts. Today he told Civil Servants preparing for no deal will be their top priority, and that while he wanted an agreement with the eu, he recognised that might not happen. Preparing for every outcome might mean dealing with a general election if some in Parliament Get their way, but the man who is in charge of no deal preparations said whatever happens, the uk would leave on october the 31st. That is the date that has been agreed between the eu 27 and the uk. I dont want a general election, because i believe its important that we get on with delivering brexit. The labour leader and others are concerned the Prime Minister might choose to hold a general election just after the brexit deadline, leaving parliament powerless to stop the uk leaving without a deal. Sojeremy corbyn has written to the head of the civil service, sir mark sedwill, seeking urgent clarification of whether that would break government rules. He says forcing through a no deal brexit during an Election Campaign would be an unprecedented, unconstitutional and anti democratic abuse of power by the Prime Minister, and asks for confirmation that in that scenario, the government should seek a time limited extension to the brexit process. If we cant have a Prime Minister who will do the decent thing, who will behave honourably, we have to go around him and say to the head of the civil service, you have also got duties here that you must adhere to. So how could we end up there . When mps get back from their summer break next month, its expected the government will face a vote of no confidence. If it loses, and a new government cant be formed within 14 days, that would trigger a general election. The Prime Minister decides the timing of that, and if, as downing street appears prepared to allow, its held after october the 31st, the uk would have already left the eu. So what if brexit happened during a general Election Campaign . During the pre election period, you cannot have radical changes of policy. Now, the difficulty forjeremy corbyns position is that the default position is that we leave the European Union on october the 315t. Many in parliament are determined to stop a no deal brexit. The government is adamant they will be no further delay. Jonathan blake, bbc news, westminster. A 28 year old churchwarden has been found guilty of murder after tricking his victim into changing his will. Ben field manipulated Peter Farquhar who was 69, duping him into a relationship and then lacing his food with drugs and neat alcohol. However field was found not guilty of the attempted murder of a retired headmistress who was 83, and whom field also admitted, hed tricked into a relationship. Tom symonds has the story. A respected former teacher and novelist, Peter Farquhar rendered helpless. He had suffered falls, injuries, he had no idea what was going on. I actually. Used to be sort of. Competent. Of course. That second voice is the man who talked his way into peters life. Despite the age difference, his student, ben field, promised to marry him while secretly lacing peters food with drugs and neat alcohol, killing him slowly for his money. Here is a cold, calculating, devious man, who took pleasure from inflicting both physical and mental torment on his victim. Evil. Peter even dedicated a book to field. In return, field tried to convince people he had dementia, and then peter was found dead. Alcohol was suspected. Suspiciously, he had signed his home over to ben field. But field wasnt done. Three doors down from the house where peter lived, he found another elderly victim. And the deception started again. A sexual relationship