— does that mean we can stop worrying about the deficit? the parties are not saying much about money at the moment. but taxes, spending and borrowing are what governments do. tonight, we'll ask if election promises on tax and spending can really be painlessly paid for. also tonight, the 15—year—old anorexia sufferer who took her own life after being discharged from mental health care against her parents‘ wishes. we'll hear from the writer emma woolf, who suffered from the illness for ten years. what can be done about anorexia? and cornelia parker has been appointed the official election artist. what's caught her cultured eye so far? you do like a dimpled seat. i hope i am not fixated on bottoms. hello. however hard the parties may try to control election campaigns, they are inevitably punctuated by unpredictable events. those prescott punch moments. we've not had anything quite like that yet, but labour today had it's most awkward moment of the campaign so far. by far. a big announcement on police numbers, and then, on lbc, the shadow home secretary diane abbott faced presenter nick ferrari — this is ms abbott on the daily politics listening back to that interview. how much would 10,000 police officers cost? well, if we recruit the 10,000 policemen and women over a four—year period, we believe it will be about £300,000. £300,000 for 10,000 police officers? sorry... what are you paying them? no, i mean... sorry... how much will they cost? they will cost... it will cost... um, about... about £80 million. about £80 million? yes. i have seen worse on dragons‘ den. 0ur political editor nick watt is here. it was excruciating. excruciating, embarrassing worthy adjectives thrown around today and that was the labour side. you know things are going badly when your fellow frontbenchers, in this case on the labour side, arejoking with conservative ministers on the other side about how badly you have done. privately, diane abbott is telling friends it was a car crash into privately, diane abbott is telling friends it was a car crash interview. 0ne friend said it is a bit like a moment when you wake up and you think, was it really that bad? and the answer is yes, it was. these accidents happen and it is not the first time nick ferrari has put someone in that situation, natalie bennett in the last election of the green party. what does it tell us? the danger is this. it makes labour looks dysfunctional and it plays into the conservative narrative that you have certainty with them and chaos under a future labour government. interestingly it shows there are poor relations between two of the leading members of the shadow cabinet who are old comrades on the left, which is diane abbott who was supposed to introduce the 10,000 officers, and john macdonald the shadow chancellor who is meant to pay for them. i understand diane abbott until 2am this morning was poring over a labour document on this because she feared the weak spot for her in the interview is labour had indicated the policy areas that would be paid forfrom the pot she was using, the 2.7 billion from reversing a cut in capital gains tax. she had an answer to that when she was asked on the today programme. she said this was before the manifesto and this is the manifesto but when she was asked the simple question, how much would it cost, her friend said she was thrown off her stride. well, in most elections, everything comes back to money, which is why questions are always asked about costings. if anything, this one so far has been about brexit, and it's as though the deficit, which dominated for years, has been forgotten. so the well—regarded and independent institute for fiscal studies has published a realty check today, helpfully telling us everything about it, and what it is that the last two parliaments have done, or not done to it. it covers the deficit, on taxes and spending. so what's the story? chris cook has been delving inside the ifs report. 0ne topic was central to the last two general elections. we will half the deficit over the next four yea rs. as we reduce the deficit. our country is facing the largest budget deficit in modern history. and you can expect it to recur in this one. we need a credible plan for dealing with the deficit. despite a rather different contexts. we will clear the deficit as soon as possible. the financial crisis and recession increase the deficit to the highest level since the second world war back in 2009—10. it has generally fallen since and is back to level before the crisis, a bit above the average but not high by historical standards, so there is a case for more deficit reduction, not least because we have racked up debt over the years but not a deficit so large it is extraordinary or out of normal bounds. it stands at about 3% of national output, which is a bit high but less than the deficits of france, the us and japan. more than the deficits in germany or ireland and the permanent memento of the crisis, the debt burden is 80%, still smaller than the us, france and japan, but again ahead of germany or ireland. since 2010 there have been some things that have not been restrained from growing, like pensions. there are things that have been relatively shielded, like the nhs. there are some things that have been boosted, like international development. 0verall, there has been a major spending squeeze. after the financial crisis spending rose to a peak of around 45% of output and since then, it has been squeezed to the precrisis level ofjust under a0%. now tax receipts have in recent years just started to creep up. but it is spending cuts that have done most of the working closing the deficit. the fiscal problem for the government is we are seven years into the austerity drive and the low hanging fruit has been plucked. it is hard to see how the nhs will stay within its budget for the next few years. it is already miles of targets and schools are planning to lay off teachers to get through the next budget round. and the prison system is creaking. austerity is a lot harder than it used to be. doing spending cuts painlessly will become more difficult over time. the waste and low value programmes are likely to have been eliminated already and if we look at the last election, david cameron was adamant the government could take 1% a year out of public spending the first two years but the data shows spending rose in those years. instead of taking 15 billion out they have added 23 billion. that is why the tories have drifted into line with what were ed miliband's spending plans. the tories attacked labour in 2015 for planning to spend more and we can expect that argument this time around but if the conservatives want to close the deficit by the next parliament, they need another £15 billion in tax hikes or spending cuts. and all the easy spending cuts have gone. chris philp is a conservative mp on the treasury select committee. mariana mazzucato is professor in the economics of innovation and public value at ucl, and sat on the labour party's economic advisory committee. chris, why did the tories implement ed miliband's manifesto during the parliament that is just finishing? the conservatives did what was fiscally responsible, taking down labour's deficit down to 3%. that is not the question, it was why have you implemented ed miliband's rather than your own goals? it is only two years. he went into the campaign with a lot of promises. you will attack the labour party in this one on the same grounds. i ask why you implemented their policy? i do not think labour had the first intention of implementing that policy. it does not matter. every measure we have taken to get the deficit under control was opposed by the labour party, every measure. the fact we have got it down from a peak of 10% to 3% is an incredible achievement. i mean by difficult circumstances the turbulence in the eurozone. we have had an election since the turbulence in the eurozone and elected you on the basis of a manifesto and criticisms you made of ed miliband and you have implemented the ed miliband fiscal strategy. at the time many said your fiscal plans lacked credibility and you said trust us, we can do it. we have it from the ifs that you couldn't and you delivered the ed miliband plan. public spending in real terms has been constant at... it has increased and you said you would reduce it. your chart showed it down to 38% of gdp and it has been constant around 760 billion a year. you are quoting departmental expenditure limits. it would be ridiculous for voters to listen to what you have to say about labour spending and tax plans, given what you said last time will stop we have reduced labour's deficit. you keep repeating. i am saying what happened at the last election is you criticised ed miliband's plans and then deliver them. why would we believe you if you make new criticisms because you might implement those. it's taken longer than we thought. going back to 2010 we hoped to eliminate the deficit by 2015. it is heading in the right direction. every measure we have taken the labour party have opposed. only one party is fighting this with credibility and it is the conservative party. does the deficit need attention? it is higher than the historical average. should getting the deficit down be a goal of the next government? first, a correction, the deficit was not an average ten, 11% under labour. governments around the world after the crisis saved the capitalist system, counter—cyclical stimulus obviously costs money. you are picking up a number during a year after the crisis. it was one year when governments saved the capitalist system. deficits matter but what matters is what you are spending on. the figures you showed are telling. italy's deficit today is lower than the uk deficit. italy's deficit has been lower! what matters is how you are growing. what matters and what both parties should be talking about and are not, is the big elephant in the room, the source of growth in this country continues to be private debt, consumption led growth, not investment led-w the issue of private debt to disposable income is back at record levels since before the crisis. what would your fiscal target be? 4% of gdp, 3%? you are obsessing. if the numbers are always going to be there. did she learn anything from the excel sheet problem when they obsessed on this terrible number, when it went over 90, the debt to gdp, that was found to be irrelevant. it does not tell us much. i get from what you are saying that the kind of spending... next question. is spending more on police and welfare and more on all the things we know the labour party would like to spend more on, is that the kind of spending that gives you long—term growth? you need long—term growth, you want a plan for the country. whether it is germany's energy policy, not just capital expenditure, innovation, infrastructure, it is a type of spending you could call consumption, trying cars sold in norway? they focus on a particular consumption. this dilemma, should we spend on nurses or infrastructure... people are worried if you say it is a false question. the data shows it is a false question. plenty of weak countries have low debt to gdp ratio stats, what does that tell you? do you think in this campaign it will be an issue? do you think this election campaign, we will talk about brexit in europe? i think it will be an issue because the labour party are making promises that cost a lot of money, and they have no idea how to pay for it, whereas the conservatives will be responsible. the more irresponsible promises we hearfrom labour to be paid for by our children... it's going to be an issue? spending on education. why are headteachers all over the country protesting? are they foolish? crosstalk. let's not argue about it, we know it is going down. productivity is lagging. the increase in real incomes has gone to over 60—year—olds. we have an increasingly financial economy, personal debt to disposable income is back to record levels. how can you call that achievement? we need to leave it there. well, back to the issue that is dominating the campaign — brexit. jean—claude juncker has tried to do to theresa may, what nick ferrari did to diane abbott. he appeared to try to show that she has no grasp of the complex details of her big project. certainly, weekend lea ks about an awkward discussion at no 10 last wednesday have shown how hostile the mood might become. nick is still with me. politically, all these headlines about them getting together and saying the uk is deluded, how do you think it plays? cabinet ministers believe this will play nicely put them in the general election. one of them said, this shows the germans want to be nasty to us. so we will say to the british people, do you want asjeremy corbyn —— nation's german chief of staff to the european commission president jean—claude juncker was behind this briefing in the german press. a bloody difficult woman. the irony is that was the language point last year by kenneth clarke who of course was a big pro—european tory and the only 0ne senior tory said this showed these negotiations are going to be very, very tough. amongst ministers, opinions are divided. showed they are grand delusions within his own governmentf and he cited the apparent remarks by david davies, the brexit secretary at this dinner, saying if there is no deal and britain crashes out, we will not with a penny. this minister said that would inflict enormous reputational damage on the uk. 0ther ministers say these are predictable skirmishings from a well—known european federalist, jean—claude juncker. well, someone with experience of this is with me now. with me in the studio is yanis va roufakis, on about the brexit dinner? absolutely not, this is the way in which brussels impedes negotiations. towards a defensive stance through leaks, distortions, and strategy of making theresa may fight for her right to negotiate. she will be negotiating on her right and opportunity to negotiate. there will be no real negotiations. you famously recorded some of your eurogroup meetings because the briefings were, you wanted to make sure the briefings were accurate at what you had heard in the meeting. nothing strange about that, i had to report to parliament, to my prime minister and cabinet. i'm not accusing you, they were distortion? there were no briefings? but the main issue as far as i was concerned, i was engaged in ten—hour long negotiations and then would have to go to my parliament and report on what happened. after ten long, strenuous hours, the human mind slips and suddenly becomes hazy. do you think brexit is going to work out for the uk? you were against it at the time of the referendum. a ranking of preferences, which produces a bad outcome for everyone. their power, theresa may and jean—claude juncker, angela merkel, is inversely proportional to the mutual what is driving the deep establishment, the european establishment you're referred to, these are not evil people, that is not your case? everyone is trying to do their best, it is like watching king lear and you wonder how can these smart people be so deluded, the characters in the tragedy. they are playing their role and what they think they need to do in this situation. jean—claude juncker and the powers that be in brussels, stuff and possibly get out of the eu. 0n the other hand theresa may, she is locked in to this inanity of putting the end of freedom of movement above everything else. above the interests of british industry, agriculture, universities. so this is a political co—ordination failure of an immense degree. politics these days, where are you on the liberal establishment? because it is the most persecuted group at the moment, it has not had a great couple of years. in many respects you are talking about the liberal establishment and deep establishment as the same thing? they are, to an extent. these days they resemble a person was killed his parents and is pleading for leniency at the court on the grounds that he is an orphan. they have been extremely authoritarian in the way they have dealt with us and are now dealing with theresa may. they have been extremely authoritarian and imposing loony economics. the idea that you take the largest loan in human history and give it to the most bankrupt state in europe is loony economics. and now they are in retreat, they are complaining about the alternative facts, distortions and lea ks and the loony economics. the deal backer in the uk general election? jeremy corbyn for sure, i'm a leftist. but you are a bit of a fan of emmanuel macron in france. in the case of the uk, i think it's madness that the labour party is standing and putting up a candidate in places like brighton against caroline lucas because of the sectarianism of the progressive front. i wish there was a nuanced progressive alliance in the uk. but in france you're right, i'm a leftist, what did the left do in 2002 when we had the ten senior pitted againstjacques chirac, we all went behind jacques chirac. he admired thatcher, he was a conservative, not at all a friend of the left and yet the left used to understand that binding together with liberals, and even neoliberals, against the fascist, racist, ultra—right, was a absolute duty. why have we changed that today? because many of his voters are going to go because they're anti—globalisation. i am anti—globalisation, but above everything else i am anti—racist and antifascist. and we should see eye to eye. macron is infinitely better by the way than jacques chirac was. he's the only minister i met during my tenure who understood the problems of loony economics in europe and tried to help greece not to crash. thank you very much. there is a contrast between the tory and labourcampaigns, in that theresa may is ahead of her party in the poll ratings, whilejeremy corbyn is below his party. meanwhile, many labour activists, of course, are enthusiastic about him and are campaigning hard in his name, as well as labour's. the corbyn supporting group, momentum, is out and about drumming up support. so is there sometimes a dissonance between the line taken by the candidate and those who come to campaign? james clayton has been to luton south to see how the labour campaign is working on the ground. luton is that rarest thing in southern england. a labour town outside london. they have two mps here, that's a sixth of labour mps in the whole of the south outside the capital. the local mp of luton, gavin shukla, has a majority ofjust under 6000 from the tories and that puts him in the cross hairs of theresa may's conservative party. so how are labour mps like gavin shukla planning to defend themselves? normally in an election what you would want to do is identify where your labour vote is and turn them out. in this election, we are doing it slightly differently. we are trying to identify where the people that are wobbly about voting labour are and persuade them. there's always a bit of both in both campaigns, but with maybe one in five labour voters with question marks about how they're going to put the x in the box, that is the absolute priority for us. the message that we are delivering on the doorstep, you can have a great local mp, but you do not want to give theresa may a blank cheque. so you have got theresa may, don't give her a blank cheque. that sounds like you're not particularly confident that you're going to this election. well, look, the reality is if the polls are at least in the ballpark, labour is not going to form the next government. it is quite a confusing message, isn't it? because you are basically telling the electorate, we are the labour party, we are going to lose. vote for us. undoubtedly we are in a paradox. the closer it looks nationally, arguably the harder it is to win some of these seats that we retain because the question marks about leadership, brexit and other policy issues make it harder to make a case about a straight choice between the two different leaders. you've got a lovely picture of yourself and you've got re—elect gavin shukla. but you do not have your great leaderjeremy corbyn on there. well, to be honest, in 2010 i did not have gordon brown and in 2015 i did not have ed miliband. is that not more a reflection about your leaders?! not at all. i like all of them. the reality is a seat like luton is won by being a local candidate. hello, there. you wouldn't offer up jeremy corbyn as a pitch to a floating voter, would you? or would you? the reality is if you are a floating voter, labour supporter in the past with question marks now, most of the concerns that they express are around leadership. so for that reason, it is not that kind of election for us. it has to be on our local records and not the national picture. but not everyone agrees with gavin. hi. hi, my name is elaine, i'm from the labour party. and ijust want to know if you've got a few minutes to talk about the general election? in london, the grassroots campaigning group momentum have been training local volunteers about how to campaign effectively on the doorstep. and rather than focus on local issues, activists are teaching volunteers how to field difficult national questions. herejeremy corbyn is seen very much as a positive on the doorstep. we thinkjeremy represents something really wonderful. he is a new kind of politics, a kind politics. a truthful politics. and we are very proud of that and we think that that resonates with people. and so we want to take that to the voters. but the local mps do not necessarily think that? there's a lot of things going on in the party, as people know. two leadership elections. but in this general election, we thinkjeremy corbyn is someone that people can believe in and what he stands for and the politics that he represents is something people can believe in. so we are proudly taking that to people. momentum is a mixed blessing for many labour mps. with 150,000 registered supporters, it is a potentially powerful weapon in this election. but not everyone is convinced. do you think that momentum will be useful in this campaign? i think momentum could be hugely useful if they can translate the numbers of supporters they have into people coming through the door of this campaign office and out on the doorstep. my membership has increased by three orfour times in the last couple of years. but my number of activists has not increased really over that period of time. so what we need is encouragement to say that if you want jeremy corbyn as prime minister, you have got to come out and support these local mps. labour's internal differences have been well publicised in recent months. butjust as members have wildly different ideas of what they want from labour party policy, so too do they differ on how best to convince constituents to vote labour come june the 8th. james clayton reporting. if you are interested in seeing a full list of candidates for luton south they'll be on the bbc news website after nominations close next week. if you ever you needed evidence of how serious a mental condition that anorexia can be, the tragic case of 15—year—old pippa mcmanus serves as a reminder. she took her own life by stepping in front of a train near stockport in 2015. she had been diagnosed with severe anorexia at age 13, had been sectioned and given treatment, her weight sometimes as low as four stone. but, against her and herfamily‘s wishes, she was discharged from the priory and sent home. she then killed herself just days later. today, a jury inquest found that contributing to her death was a lack of support available for her family, and an inadequate care plan for her. this is pippa's mum marie speaking outside the coroner's court after the verdict. anorexia has the highest mortality rate attributed to any psychiatric illness, with as many as 40% of deaths due to suicide. too many of our children are dying from this terrible illness. effective treatment is needed more quickly and if this had been available to our beautiful daughter maybe she would still be alive today. with me in the studio is emma woolf, a writer and broadcaster who suffered from anorexia for 10 years — she wrote the memoir an apple a day about her illness. we know that if you starve yourself, you endanger your life. suicide by other means for people with anorexia, how common is that? it is very common. as pippa's mother mentioned, anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, higher than schizophrenia, which is surprising. it is notjust people dying from a lack of food, it is that high suicide rate, because life becomes so desperate and miserable. food for everyone else is the fuel for life and keeps your body going. as your brain and body staff, everything falls apart. it feels so difficult and desperate to keep going. what therapy is available? particularly nhs therapy. how easy is it if your child is suffering, a teenager? at the moment we basically have basic medication, antidepressants, and talking therapy. behavioural therapy and counselling. what is the state of the art on what works? what works is a combination of talking therapy, cognitive behavioural support. and if people are desperately underweight and need medical help they will have feeding. what i hear anecdotally from thousands of younger readers is that there are long waiting lists for help. as the mother said, there is not the help people need. often it is rationed. to tell someone with anorexia who is losing weight, you are not thin enough the treatment is the most dangerous thing you can do. you are over it now? i am now, but it took a very long time and i don't think any of these treatments, it is not a magic with it. it took ten years of trying and failing and trying and failing again and it was a gradual process. there was nothing when you said you went to this person with this idea? everybody wants a breakthrough, but it is about challenging yourself each time, gaining weight, losing it again, gaining weight, trying foods that scare you and realising having a slice of toast will not make you fat. these ridiculous fears, that is the thing, it does not make sense. it is the most inexplicable... for someone without anorexia to understand the mindset is difficult. you see a starving person and think, how can you not eat? it does not make sense and it does not make sense when you are in the midst of it. you cannot understand why you can't eat, but you can't. research has shown us it is about the brain, there are conditions within the brain. it is a brain disease, not a lifestyle choice. it is important to understand people are not making a choice. thanks very much. who knew we needed an election artist? but we do have one, appointed by the speaker's advisory committee on works of art. who better to serve in that role than cornelia parker? an artist famous for grand installations, provocative performances pieces and a fair dose of wit, she's already begun an election—themed instagram account. one could attempt any number of election puns out of her previous works, like cold dark matter, or the maybe. but rather than me do that, we left it to our culture editor stephen smith instead. so, here we are. yes. have you been here before? i've been here once before. i think the house of commons is down here. there's a reason they usually have a man with a big black rod on the doors at the commons. throw them open to a leading conceptual artist and you never know where her professional curiosity might lead her. i like the green carpet. i think i mightjust take a picture over here. i'm hoping this is where theresa may sits. i am just glad newsnight was on hand to preserve the modesty of the mother of parliaments. i wonder if she sits across the crease. i thought we were obsessed with their seats on this programme, but i mean to say. i love all the creases on it which is made by politicians‘ bottoms, not their minds. i once photographed freud's seat. his actual seat he sat in. his consulting chair. i liked the marks were made by freud subconsciously. i am still getting over the shock of becoming the election artist. it was a snap election and they made a snap decision about which artist. how does it feel? ok, i did not waste too much time saying yes because i thought if i thought about it too long i would not do it. i am glad i did. this might be one for instagram. i am new to instagram, it is my first social media. with the current speaker, we might see where their heels are banking against... perhaps that is unkind. another political abstracts. it is interesting, the buttons. i wonder what they do. is there a panic button? an ejector seat. i would like to think so. in a nonpartisan way an ejector seat for the speaker to use. like the big red chair on graham norton. do you have strong political leanings in any direction? i am not so much party political but i feel i am a very concerned citizen because there is so much happening in the world. i have a 15—year—old and i am much more politically attuned, especially about things like climate change, nhs, education, particularly, so there are issues. brexit seems to be slumping a bit. you do like a dimpled seat. i hope i am not fixated on bottoms. you were the one who consulted doctor freud. what freud would say about this i don't know. nice. apart from her instagram feed, cornelia parker says she is still considering what other works she might produce. she does not want to be pigeonholed. diane abbott, she is number one. i should stress this is the artist's own idea. why did that appealed to you? i saw a gap under her heel and thought, what could go in that gap? political artist trodden on by former pm. stephen smith with cornelia parker. just time for one newspaper, the financial times. eu raises uk brexit build to 100 billion euros. previously it had been 60 billion. that's it for tonight. we leave you with colinjackson breaking the 60 metre indoor hurdles world record from 1994 — his record still stands today. but, it's under threat — a new proposal by european athletics would cancel all world records set before 2005 because they don't comply with modern doping standards. colinjackson has described the proposals as "ludicrous", "unbelievable" and "unfair". .. so, we thought we'd give you another chance to enjoy this race before it is erased from history. good night. commentator: and this time they are away. a superb start by jackson. jarrett is only a stride behind him, but jackson pulling away and jackson gets it first. it is 7.35. it's a new world record. greg foster's mark of 1987 has been toppled. good evening. some very big weather contrast across the country. not temperature—wise. warmer air from the near continent. cloud in the southern and eastern areas. the best of the sunshine in scotland. 21 degrees. wall—to—wall sunshine. south and east, cloud. disappointing in the afternoon. heading through the rest of the night, the breeze will come in further and introduce thick cloud to the east and south—east. a little bit of light rain and drizzle in towards the south—east corner of the country. quite chilly in western scotland. a touch of frost. mist and fog. a lovely bright start for wednesday morning in scotland, northern ireland, northern england. low cloud in the central belt which will go away quickly. a chilly start. temperatures will rise through the morning. early sunshine in northern england, the north midlands, northern and western wales, sunny spells into cornwall and devon. elsewhere, a grey and disappointing start. cloud will be thick enough for patchy rain. some towards the london area. a breeze. through the day, little change. it would go north and west. cloudier for the rest of wales. the best of the sunshine in the far north of scotla nd sunshine in the far north of scotland and northern ireland. the best of the temperatures in western scotland, 17—18. south and east, cool because of the cloud is to be cool because of the cloud is to be cool along the east coast. why is it cool? north sea temperatures, 8—10 degrees. 0n the coast, cloud and breeze, cold. the evening on wednesday, quite cloudy for most of england and wales. further light rain and drizzle. clearer skies in scotla nd rain and drizzle. clearer skies in scotland and northern ireland. thursday, if anything, scotland and northern ireland. thursday, ifanything, more scotland and northern ireland. thursday, if anything, more of a breeze picking up. the best of the sunshine in the north and west of the country. temperatures, 15—16. chilly in the south—east. the breeze isa chilly in the south—east. the breeze is a feature across central, southern, and eastern parts of the uk. chilly. the best of the sunshine in the north and west. high pressure on the weekend keeps the weather systems out. dry on saturday and sunday. a north—easterly. chilly in north and east areas. the best of the sunshine in the west of the country. pretty impressive daytime maximum is. welcome to the headlines from london. tensions between britain and the eu over brexit, after a difficult meeting with the european commission president. britain's prime minister describes that the road ahead could be bumpy. during the conservative party leadership campaign i was described by one of my colleagues as a "bloody difficult woman". i said at the time that the next person to find that out would be jean—claude juncker. donald trump and vladimir putin discuss problems ranging from north korea to syria. they agreed to try to meet in july. korea to syria. they agreed to try to meet injuly. and in singapore, coming up: how free is the global price? we find out as we take a look at world press freedom day. singapore rethinks its