Now on bbc news, its newsy Chat And Analysis from adam fleming, laura kuenssberg, and Chris Mason in newscast. Laura, i notice a long Standing Newscast Tradition returns this week. Which is that there is no adam fleming, because he is on his holidays. Ive got an upgrade to the actual studio. What, do you mean that we let you out of the cupboard . Yes, the cupboard is shut. And, there is loads of news about. Yes, there always seems to be, just in time for thursday. Even if you are thinking at the beginning of the week, oh, it is a bit quiet, what are we going to have to talk about . Late on Thursday Night. What does it feel like right now . Exactly. Adams tradition, throughout the brexitcast, when he would go skiing or whatever and then there would be a load of news. Gadding around. And here we are on Thursday Night with talk of, quote unquote, Levelling Up, big conversation, this whole question about how to go about putting us off unhealthy food and how much should a government intervene in that kind of stuff. It was only last week that we were talking about how Hawaiian Pizza maybe they heard that Tax Pineapple chunks. And, of course, after the football, notjust a disappointment for so many youngerfans, but all of the questions that have swirled around race this week. So, plenty to talk about on newscast. Newscast, newscast, from the bbc. So, it is chris, actually in the proper studio. And how lovely to be with you in the studio, but still two metres apart. Indeed. Let us talk to our first guest, bim afolemi, Conservative Mp, joining us from the other newscast studio. Hello, bim. Hello, how are you doing . Not so bad. How are you . Thanks forjoining us. Loads to talk to you about, as i say, we can talk about Levelling Up and we certainly will later, and this whole business about food. Actually, do you like pineapple on a pizza . No, no, no. No, it is wrong, it should be banned. When i am in charge, i am going to ban it, it should be banned, legislated for. Ah, that is Policy Number one, when you are in downing street. Exactly. Wow, there you go. You have probablyjust really pleased your italian constituents, the fine italians in your constituency will be delighted to hear that you have committed to banning the humble Hawaiian Pizza. I am more of a Sloppy Giuseppe man, from pizza express, yeah. 0h you see, anytime i have had one of those, you end up just wearing that. That is whenever you have anything to eat, chris 0ther Pizza Chains are also available. Notjust the Sloppy Giuseppe. Right then, serious business. Bim, first of all, lets talk about the fallout since the football on Sunday Night and, in particular, the racial element of it, the racist abuse that those three Penalty Takers had to wake up to the night after the match before. You are a man of nigerian heritage, how do you reflect on what has happened in the last few days . Well, i think that it is very regrettable in one way, obviously, and everyone condemns racist abuse of our footballers, and frankly of anybody. Whether they are in public life or not, for any reason, that is not what we are as a country and if i think back, i am 35, and when i was a kid, watching England Football matches, frankly racist abuse was much more of a bigger part of things than it is now and i think it is worth making that point. However, in addition, i think that we need to find a language and find a way of dealing with this issue that is not saying, everything is awful, nothing has improved, the country is irredeemably racist, because i do not believe that is true. The evidence does not bear it out. At the same time, to say, yes, there is stuff that needs to be improved, there are issues, not just with idiots on social media, but there are issues, if you look at management or senior management, whether it is football clubs orthe fa, there are not many black people there, there are various other issues and i think it is worth saying, look, these issues need to be looked at, in the broader sweep of things, because it is not just what happens on the pitch, it is the whole industry and the whole sector. But it is also, for some people, particularly on the opposition side, about what happens in parliament, what happens in government, and, you know, there has been a lot of criticism, even some tory mps have questioned how senior figures in the Tory Party had discussed this issue in recent times. Let us have a listen to the Labour Leader Keir Starmer who accused Boris Johnson of trying to stoke up what he described as a Culture War, he described it as a controversial term, chris, but this was a really dominant question at pmqs yesterday. Let us have a listen. We can all see what has happened here, the government has been trying to stoke i a Culture War and they have realised they are on the wrong side and now they hope that L Nobody has noticed. Why else would a conservative Mp Boast that he is not watching his own team . Why else would anotherl Conservative Mp say that Marcus Rashford spends too much time playing politics when he is actually i trying to feed children that the Government Wont . And why will the Prime Minister refuse, time and time again, i even now, to condemn those who booed our players for standing up against racism . Mr speaker, what is it| that this England Team symbolises that this | conservative party is so afraid of . Now, just in case people have not been following this, this story has sort of developed over the weeks, hasnt it, chris, where initially ministers were asked about footballers taking the knee at the beginning of a match to protest against racism and to highlight Racism And Priti Patel And Borisjohnson initially sort of said, i am not going to condemn people, but nobody should boo the players. That position has shifted along a bit in recent times, but that is where this all sort of began to prove. Bim, what do you say to that, because some people, including in your own party, have been uncomfortable about the government seeming hesitant on this issue. I think that the difficulty for this has been notjust for senior ministers but for all mps. When these things started, it was just about not wanting to try and get involved and when people asked the question several weeks ago, are you going to condemn fans for this, are you going to condemn fans for that, the instinct of senior ministers was, i am not going to get involved with that, and that is how that came about. I think as things developed, look, the conservative party needs to fully appreciate and understand that we need to be able to find a language that says that there are particular problems, not everything is fixed yet in relation to racism, but at the same time, the country is not irredeemably structurally racist and everything is terrible and nothing has improved, neither of those is true. We need to be able to find a reasonable moderate language that can deal with the problem but at the same time accept that things have improved and developed. I do not agree with what some of my colleagues may or may not have said in relation to the points you picked out, Louis Anderson and someone on a Whatsapp Group. Who said he would not watch the football, while the players were taking the knee. Natalie elphicke, the mp for dover on the Whatsapp Group was talking, wasnt she, about Marcus Rashford spending more time practising penalties rather than being involved in politics. I think both of those comments were unwise, but what i would say is that it is ok for me to say or either of you two say i dont necessarily want to take the knee, because that your choice, but you can also be against racism without taking the knee at the same time, if someone does chose to take the knee, we should not criticise someone for that being their expression of combating racism. I think we need to be able to be open a moderate and accept that people will try and do things in their own way and we should not try and ban one way of doing it and neither should everybody be forced to take the knee of some sort of demonstration that they are against racism. So, to be specific then, was it unwise of the Home Secretary to so directly avoid when she was asked, would you condemn those who are booing those who are taking the knee, she very pointedly avoided answering that, saying it was up to them. Was that a mistake . It is what i was saying at the beginning, ijust think she did not want to get into a sort of row about what fans should and should not do. It looked like she was sympathising with those who booed the players. Anybody who has followed anything to do with this Home Secretary will know that she has been the recipient of pretty nasty stuff in lots of places and i know that you will appreciate that. I think that anyone that thinks that the Home Secretary, and i know her well, thinks that racism is ok is wrong, but at the same time i think what this has really been born out and this is really about is almost a discomfort around the issue and therefore politicians thinking, i do not want to get involved, i do not want to condemn, and i think that that is really how this became difficult. Isnt leadership about getting involved, showing empathy and to the country and how this was perceived, because it is a sensitive debate, all sorts of different views and you are suggesting, bim, but it is hard i think i think that is wrong. People i think that is wrong. People are allowed to express themselves in their own way. But at themselves in their own way. But at the themselves in their own way. But at the same time i dont think but at the same time i dont think everybody who takes the knee think everybody who takes the knee is think everybody who takes the knee is necessarilyjust doing it. Knee is necessarilyjust doing it they knee is necessarilyjust doing it. They think we have to take everyones it. They think we have to take Everyones View on this. Nuances Everyones View on this. Nuances very often difficult in this debate. Such a strong feeling. Thank you for trying your best. Interesting to hear your best. Interesting to hear your views. Tons of news around. You want to ban Hawaiian Pizza. The Dimbleby Dynasty Setting out ideas for everyone to be healthier and basically eat better and be better and have more salad and vegetables and all the rest. There has been so much around today and the main political event was the Prime Ministers big speech. It always makes me wonder, chris, when anything is ever billed as a big speech, quite often sometimes, it quite often and is feeling a little bit underwhelming. You have been covering this today, what do you think . Do you know the word i always look out for with these things . Does it include the Word Keynote . A keynote major big significant address. To be fair, i dont think it did on this, because usually when i see keynote, i think it probably wont pay. The Prime Minister has been in coventry, talking about, quote, unquote, Levelling Up, this big central idea, the most central idea of his premiership, as a spokesperson described it today, and i thought he was really blunt in his diagnosis, basically saying that the uk is compared with many similar countries, very, very centralised on london, huge inequalities between and indeed within regions, but of course the challenge he has got, particularly two years into being Prime Minister is how much have they actually done as opposed to diagnosed, how much has he cured, how much treatment as he provided . There was not all that much new detail. Shall we have a listen . Yeah. Good idea. For too many people, geography turns out to be destiny. Take life expectancy, i even before covid hit, it is an outrage that a man. In Glasgow Or Blackpool has an average of ten Years Lessl on this planet than someone growing up in hampshire or in rutland and i dont know what people do in rutlandj to live to prodigious ages, who knows, but they do. Now, arguably, chris and bim, almost any politician over the last 30, maybe a0 years, could have made almost exactly those same statements. I dare say that you and i have both been in a Room Listening to politicians of different stripe saying almost exactly the same things, but tap on, after more than a decade in charge, why is it that your party still feels the need to be saying these kind of things when their critics would argue they are responsible for not having done very much to change it over the years, maybe even exacerbate it, some people on the left would claim, what is the point of him spelling this out again, without being quite so hot on the solutions . So, and i say this very gently, the difficulty with a lot of modern media is that it is always asking for a new, always needing the new thing, what is the new solution, the new exciting thing. Actually sometimes the answer to very complex, generational problems is doing what we know we need to do and doing it as effectively as possible. So, what does that look like on Levelling Up . Fundamentally, the way i look at this is, economic development in certain regions of this country is poor in comparison with say, london and the South East in particular. Now part of how over the last ten years we sought to deal with that is around the devolution agenda, the Metro Mayors, greater manchester, the northern powerhouse, all of that sort of thing. That has improved things. The next phase, and i think thats what the Prime Minister is now looking at, whether it be using the Net Zero agenda, whether it be looking at the High Street strategy, various other things, is to try and bring all these things together to improve the economic productive capacity of the country. You delivered your admonishment gently, but directly, i thought. Quick question. The Prime Minister very pointedly addressed the whole notion that Levelling Up as he describes it, doesnt mean cutting down the tallest poppies, was the phrase i think he used. In other words, i guess, potentially punishing people like your constituents in Hitchin And Harpendenjust outside london in the broader South East of england. Do you get People Grumbling to you in your surgery saying, you Lotjust Bang on about the north of england all the time, what about us . I havent in my constituency, but the Chesham And Amersham By Election which is about ten miles from my constituency, which is the By Election we lost recently. I campaign there a lot and i did, if i am very honest, i did hear people say, oh, when you talk about this Levelling Up, what you mean is using my taxes to go and spend in somewhere up north. And thats why i am really, really passionate about this. The economic capacity of different regions in the country has to be improved and that is what the Prime Minister is talking about when he was saying it is good for the south. Because if we improve the economic capacity of other regions in the country you reduce the pressure, whether it be in terms of Housing Or Infrastructure or services or whatever in the South East, and that is good for people, its good for their kids and grandkids. So thats why the economic capacity is the thing that i will be working with, my colleagues very much looking to the treasury over the coming months as the Net Zero, notjust Net Zero, sorry, the Levelling Up strategy comes forth. Because without that, ultimately, without an economic strategy, we are not going to significantly improve things beyond what New Labour did. So the economics is the key to this and the way we do that better is a whole mixture of the things that we all know works. It is infrastructure, which we have committed to, it is R D Spending and notjust putting it in cambridge, london and oxford, but bringing it to manchester and other parts of the country. It is skills, its infrastructure, all of these things are what we need to do to improve the economic capacity of the country. Its what theyve been trying to do in germany for the best part of 30 years and we need to frankly get a move on. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. We note there that as a Conservative Mp from one of the wealthier parts of the South East, noting still there will be pressure on the treasury to make sure that plenty of wonga ends up in your part of the world. But thank you very much indeed forjoining us tonight. Interesting, chris . Bim mentioned the idea of devolution and the mayors and people having more say. Guess what . Two of the prominent mayors of england have been listening to that conversation and arejoining us now. Andy street, the Metro Mayor of the West Midlands and tracy brabin, the newly ish elected mayor from West Yorkshire. Thank you both so much indeed forjoining us tonight. Andy, you were in the audience at the Prime Ministers speech today, werent you . I know that you are a loyal conservative, but you are also someone who will bang the drum for your part of the world, what did you make of it . You are quite right on all those counts, laura. I couldnt hear the conversation with bim, we were sitting in silence so i cannot comment on what went before. But the last bit of what i heard him say was spot on, that this ultimately is about the economics. And i think the most important thing i took from today is where the event occurred. It is actually symbolic of Levelling Up in action. So many people say, whats it all about . So letsjust explain that to your listeners. It was at this new Battery Industrialisation Centre in coventry, and that is all about the West Midlands, in this case, becoming the centre of this new industry. A place for Lots Ofjobs will be created in cutting Edge Technology and the symbolism of choosing to talk about it there was so important. The honest point i thought the Prime Minister called out the really clearly is jobs in Battery Technology in the West Midlands are good for britain and there is nothing lost by the South East in that. So actually you can still see an incredibly vibrant london, but there will be some things, and by the way, there will be different in the West Midlands to West Yorkshire, where the West Midlands can step up and play its full part. And that was the message of today and that i agree with wholeheartedly. When you say, andy, i dont know if people come up to you in the West Midlands in The Street and say, what is Levelling Up . Maybe that is the exclusive preserve of nerdy political journalist, but if and when people do do that, i know of had a go at it just there, but how, in a sentence or two do you answer them . What does Levelling Up actually physically look like . Chris, i hate to tell you this but No One has ever come up to me in The Street and said, what does Levelling Up really mean . But people do come up to me and say, whats all this Devolution Stuff about . Whats this rebalancing the economy about . What is this all going on here . Most of that is very straightforward and i usually say, what we are after is actually that there isnt a big gap in Life Chances between the child born in wolverhampton and a child born in london. That we get better Employment Prospects here, more like the opportunities you have in london. When you put it in really practical terms and it all starts withjobs, opportunities and the skills to get those really good jobs, people then get it. It is not about a bus, a bridge or a small piece of investment. Ultimately, its about the idea of social mobility. People say, i see what this is all about now. Tracy, congratulations in your new role, welcome to newscast for the first time in your new gig. Listening to andy, what do you make of that, it all sounded like a list of nice promises . Well, certainly we were very excited in West Yorkshire i to hear the Prime Minister finally nail down what Levelling Up actually meant. I am sorry to say, i disagree slightly with andy, that it was pretty disappointing. I there was lots in there that we knew already. I West Yorkshire knows that Life Chances, its very tough for some of our communities. A boy born today in one of the wealthier parts. Of West Yorkshire was more likely to live 11. 3 years longer than a boy born in one of the most deprived areas i of West Yorkshire. So of course its not just i north, south, its notjust even city and town, it is about our communities. I must say, i was slightly disappointed. I did feel we were going to get more detail, more Long Term funding. You know, we are still. In a position and it hasnt changed from the. Levelling up speech. We are bidding against Each Other in our communities, l trying to get those small plots of funding. Of course, as the new mayor, i am absolutely up for working with government. I have written to the new Levelling Up minister. I am yet to get a reply, so i am just hoping thats lost in the post, because it is really importantj that we work together. If i could just finallyj say that andy and i, we have lots in common. We were part of the uk 100 and andy did a brilliant event hosting that. Lots of people, mayors and mpsl and stakeholders came together. One of the things we are asking of government is that one of the things we are asking. Of government is that powers one of the things we are asking of government is that powers. To deliver for climate change. I am sure andy would agree with me on that, that part. Iof Levelling Up is having thosel powers to go faster and further to deliver for the government. Tracy, one of the things the Prime Minister talked about in his speech was devolution and the mayoral model of which you are a part and that being rolled out to counties and not just cities. I wonder what levers of power you have been able to pull, or looking forward to pulling in your first few weeks and months as West Yorkshires mayor. By the way, i quite liked that facemask you had on the other day, which i think was divided up into the different chunks of your region, wasnt it . Thats right, it was made by a counsellor for me and it says, do it for. Yorkshire inside. Youll have to send one to chris, tracy. He will wear it around the newsroom. It is my lucky talisman. I would say, having been. In opposition for five years, it is quite exciting to be able to have power and money. L so to be able to, in the first few weeks actually attach. Budgets to my ten L Manifesto pledges. So whether thats 5000 affordable, sustainable homes, 1000 jobs for young people, whether thats having an Inclusivity Champion to bring Quality And Diversity and inclusion into everything. We do, whether that is tackling the climate emergency, all of those things, we have been able to kick start, get going and in. The first 100 days we will have an audit and all of those pledges that 60 of those who voted for me on that. Mandate, it really powerfull and we will make sure those pledges are kick started and we definitely deliverj at The End of the three years. Just talking about counties, it is not for me to say what they want, this. Is devolution in action. It is for them to say to government what they want. But i did raise an eyebrow when the Prime Minister said, write to me with your great ideas. The people who work in his office may regret that. You never know, he might have a very full postbag, i expect. Tracy, it is great to have you on and we will have you on in your new role again, maybe after you 100 days, see how people who live in your mayoralty, that sounds very grand, having a mayoralty, how things are going. Just as we disappear, because we have an almost brand new mayor and one of the most experienced Metro Mayors in the country, andy, you did thejob for a while and then you got re elected, not so long ago. Any last minute tips for tracy about the best way of doing the job . Oh, it would be entirely wrong for me to tell tracy how to do it, but i will offer. A tip, a tip . Tip, Iwill Offer a reflection, because it is very easy, regardless of Party Politics to find yourself opposing what the government do. But we have genuinely found that the best way to do it is to try to find the common ground and to say to government, we are a capability here. We are a resource you should be using, we can make things happen. Back to the point that the conference that tracy referred to earlier in the week where we hosted the uk 100 conference, all about local leaders coming together to say the biggest challenge of all is around climate change. Lets do things which are best locally rather than nationally and actually, help us achieve together. And i think that is the tip i would offer, thats my experience of the last four years, it is better when we work with people than work against them. All Peace And Harmony in regional politics. It is great to have two mayors on. I wonder what the collective noun is for a bunch of mayors . I dont know, any ideas either of you . I dont know. A chain, maybe . A chain, of course, very, very good. Thank you both for your time, its been great to have you on. I hope you both come back another time. Thank you. Thank you, goodbye. A chain of mayors. That was well delivered. She used to be an actress. Former actress and former High Street, john lewis, used to be a Big Boss atjohn lewis. That is going to avoid me make a bad joke about from one Soap Opera to another. It will be you and adam next week. And i will be our newscast tomorrow, the podcast. That will be in your feeds and on the tv, and this is all getting very complicated. That is what we call a tease. Plenty from laura tomorrow, thank you for listening and watching. Goodbye. Hello there. 0ur Sunshine that we see believe it or not is linked to the extreme Weather Weve seen across other parts of europe. Its linked by the jet stream. This is the pattern that weve seen. A very undulating jet stream. It means slow moving weather. Weve had low pressure bringing the rain across europe. That low pressure will move eastwards. Eventually taking the rain away from germany. High pressure will bid in across the uk, bringing Dry Weather. With the sunshine we had on thursday, temperatures in Northern Ireland reached 26 degrees, making it the warmest day of the year so far. Its going to be a warm start across belfast, temperatures at 16 degrees. We start with cloud across east anglia, but it will break up more readily. Its going to feel warmer. Sunshine across england and wales. Some patchy cloud developing. There will be spells of sunshine for Northern Ireland, but across western scotland, more of a breeze and more cloud. Sunnier skies and warmer weather for Eastern Parts Of Scotland and across england and wales, 26 27 degrees. Itll be a warmer day for the eastern side of england. High pressure in charge in the weekend. Around the top of the area of high pressure, winds are coming in from the atlantic. Stronger winds of scotland again on saturday, and that will drag in more cloud and a little more drizzle. The cloud in Northern Ireland will tend to break up and will get sunshine coming in across other parts of scotland. Lots of Sunshine And Light winds across england and wales. Temperatures continuing to climb up to around 27 or 28 degrees. Temperatures in scotland and Northern Ireland probably not changing too much at this stage. As we head into that second half of the weekend, well see more cloud coming down across scotland and Northern Ireland, perhaps into northern england. A change of Air Mass which will drop the temperatures. Lots of sunshine for the southern half of the uk. Temperatures here could reach 29 or 30 degrees. You can see those lower temperatures as you head further north. As we head into the beginning next week, maybe one or two showers. But on the whole, a lot of Dry Weather once again. But that Cooler Air in the north will be pushing its way further south. Hello. Welcome to bbc news. Im ben boulos. These are our top stories. Go, io, these are our top stories. Go, no, no Flash Floods kill at least 70 people in western europe. Thousands across germany, the netherlands, and belgium have been forced to leave their homes with more Heavy Rain on the way. Lebanons Prime Minister designate gives up on trying to form a government. There are protests on The Streets as the Countrys Crisis deepens. 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