the background, it stems from a report in the times last week that said mark menzies had called an elderly party activist in the early hours in december asking for £5,000 in campaignfunds hours in december asking for £5,000 in campaign funds to be paid to him because he was being held by what he described as bad people and it emerged a further 111,000 had been paid out of campaign funds to cover his private medical expenses. he has said he will step down. he did not reference the allegations in his statement but said it had been a difficult week and he requested his family's privacy was respected. he will step down at the next election. we had the whip suspended from the conservative party and he denies the allegations. 11 people have been reported missing and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes after heavy rain caused severe flooding in parts of southern china. rescue teams have been sent to the province of guangdong after days of heavy rain