25/05/2016 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten, the ban on substances known as legal

highs comes into force into two hours' time.

These are substances that mimic the effect of illegal drugs such

as cannabis and cocaine and, until now, they've

This man died after taking a legal high.

His mother says the ban, which applies throughout

I think he strongly believed because they were legal,

they were safe and I think that's what lots of people believe

and they think it's just something you can take when you go to a party

and just get a bit of a buzz off it and it's not going to harm you.

And the ban comes into force following new reports of people

needing urgent medical treatment in recent days.

As steel workers call for a more certain future,

the government considers changes to the pension fund

Why leaving the EU could prolong austerity according to a leading

research group and why that warning has provoked a bitter dispute.

The campaigning goes on but Hillary Clinton is criticised

in an official report for using private email for work purposes

And the changing face of Marks and Spencer,

but who exactly is the customer they call Mrs M?

And coming up in Sportsday at half past ten on BBC News...

There's another five-set scare for Andy Murray but he has made it

through to the third round at the French Open.

From midnight tonight across the UK there will be a ban on the

Manufacturer or sale of substances known as legal highs.

These are substances that mimic the effect of illegal drugs such

as cannabis and cocaine and, until now, they've been freely

The ban comes into force amid new concerns about the risks posed.

Several people in Rochdale needed medical treatment after taking legal

Our correspondent Angus Crawford has the latest.

It's legal now, but banned at midnight.

This is where we take the raw chemicals.

This firm supplies legal highs, which mimick the effects of cocaine.

Today, it's a thriving small business.

Tomorrow, an illegal supplier of dangerous drugs.

We get up to a turn over of about ?500,000.

Yeah, from something that started off in a third bedroom.

The man behind the business doesn't want to be identified.

He now plans to take it abroad and thinks the ban will do

I think it'll just drive up deaths, just straightaway

People then will go back over to illegal drugs.

Crime rates are going to go up because prices of illegal

drugs are going to be a lot higher than ?15,

?20 a gram, they're going to be paying ?50-?70 a gram.

Users, out of control, in a city centre.

One reason the Government is banning what it calls an abhorrent trade.

Legal highs were linked to more than 100 deaths last year,

including that of Brodie Harrison-Merritt, who was just 28.

His mother says he took the drug with a friend at a

He died in the early hours of the morning on the Friday,

His body had just shut down completely.

I think he strongly believed that, because they were legal,

they were safe and I think this is what lots of people believe

and they think it's just something you can take when you go to a party.

Just to get a little bit of buzz off it and it's not going to harm you.

Those who supply these drugs aren't there to pick up the pieces.

Paramedics in Birmingham can get four call-outs a day.

Recently, Cameron McVitie had to help a man who

We entered the property to find the gentleman unconscious,

not in cardiac arrest, actually round his toilet.

All of a sudden he made a rapid recovery, jumped up,

started to get really aggressive, punching his own walls in his flat,

putting holes through his doors by kicking them.

Hundreds of thousands of young people regularly use

The question is - now they're no longer for sale in shops

like these on the high street, will the trade die out

The reason these powders are so risky is that you don't

You don't know how long before you get high.

Experts on drug policy believe the new law may have mixed results.

I think that's going to lead to a reduction in use,

particularly by young people, and I think that's

But the group who are already using these drugs, who are most

vulnerable and marginalised, the law will make no

There will be people stockpiling and selling to that group,

but the people selling won't be paying tax now, it'll be street

Today, hours before the ban, a shop in Rochdale, closed

by police, two arrests and a reminder of the dangers.

Since Friday, nine men have been admitted to hospital

With me now is our Special Correspondent, Lucy Manning.

Based on what we have heard and your reports last week on the state of

prisons, there are people who think this ban will not work. We sought

the effect that legal highs like Spice were having in prisons

increasing violence and health problems with emergency services

called out on average every 20 minutes and that was having an

impact on ambulances in the community. People outside could buy

them legally and sell them for not the money inside prisons but this

has been a problem for some years in towns and cities and we have seen it

in Rochdale this week. Will it work? People will not be able to walk into

shops now and that will push the price up and that should help to

discourage people but people already think that drug dealers will step in

to fill the gap and police are saying that what could happen is the

selling could migrate to what is called the dark net comedy bits of

the Internet that cannot be traced where some illegal goods are sold.

Ireland had a ban on these legal highs in 2010 and the number of

deaths has gone up. Ministers admit that this is not a silver bullet you

need education and rehabilitation as well, but for those people who were

taking legal highs because they thought they were safe because they

were legal, that will now stop. Thank you.

The government is considering cutting benefits to the British

Steel pension scheme to try to help secure a buyer for Tata Steel's

Several hundred steel workers took part in a demonstration

in Westminster earlier today to protest against plans by Tata

The sale has been made more difficult because the pension scheme

The Business Secretary, Sajid Javid, along with

the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, have been holding

talks with with Tata officials in Mumbai.

Mr Javid said several of the bids were credible.

Our business correspondent Yogita Limaye is following events in

Focusing on this pension issue, how central is it?

It has become a big matter of concern and Sajid Javid has said it

could deter potential buyers. We have seen some companies who have

expressed an interest in purchasing that are still's you get at it

saying they don't want to take on the pension liability. As far as

Tata is concerned, they are saying that it understanding is that if the

buyer does not want to continue the pension scheme, there are provisions

within the legal framework of the UK to deal with that but we have

learned that the government is planning to introduce a consultation

in parliament tomorrow that could see a reduction in the benefits that

members of the pension fund received. We have also learned that

this is a plan that unions might back. It is a way to sweeten the

deal, to reduce the pension burden. The UK business of Tata steel is a

loss-making one and they have said they have been losing ?1 million

every day and that is quite what is on offer needs to be made more

attractive if a buyer is to be found. Thank you.

The leading economic research group, the Institute for Fiscal Studies,

has warned that Britian could face a further two years of austerity

if voters decide to leave the European Union.

The warning provoked a furious row when Leave campaigners accused

the IFS of being a propaganda arm of the European Union.

David Cameron backed the IFS, saying it represented the gold

Our economics editor, Kamal Ahmed, has the story.

Vital public services could face further cuts.

Austerity could be extended for a further two years.

That was the gloomy outlook published today by one of the UK's

most respected economic organisations, the IFS.

Its judgment on what could happen if there is a vote to leave the EU

If the government wanted to get to budget balance in 2019,

as it says it does, that would require another ?5 billion

of public service spending cuts, ?5 billion of security cuts

These findings are harder to dismiss as the IFS took the average of all

the economic reports on Brexit, from pessimistic too optimistic,

and applied a simple and trusted test on the results.

So, what does the IFS suggest could be the impact of Brexit?

First, there would be a gain of ?8 billion.

That is the amount of money the IFS says the government pays to the EU

But the IFS says that a possible economic downturn following Brexit

That economic downturn could mean our national income,

or GDP, being up to 3.5% smaller by 2020.

And that would mean less tax income for the government,

which the IFS says could lead to a public finance black hole

The result, well, it could be more cuts, higher taxes or two

more years of austerity, if the government sticks to its plan

Unsurprisingly, the Prime Minister welcomed the analysis of the IFS.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies is the gold standard in independent,

impartial, economic forecasting and commentary in our country.

It is accepted by every political party.

Vote Leave claims its waving the flag for Britain and the economy

I think people are getting a bit sick and tired of this overwhelming

stuff about how the economy is going to end in tears

The truth is, of course, that economic forecasts

are only going to spit out on the assumptions that you put in.

Depending on the assumptions you put in, you can get absolute

Ukip's Nigel Farage, arguing leaving the EU would be

the great escape, and that the IFS, in any case, might be,

Another taxpayer-funded and EU-funded organisation

using our money to tell us what we should think.

That allegation is hotly denied by the IFS and Andrew Lilico,

Vote Leave's economic expert, took to social media

There will be a lot more of this, the battle buses crisscrossing

the country, trying to convince the voters that the economy is safe

We have had such a wide range of predictions and warnings so where

does the IFS stand? They are a serious and respected organisation.

It is another day when the Vote Lead campaign have found themselves

responding to a bleak assessment of what would happen if Britain were to

leave the EU. I have spoken to number of senior figures close to

their campaign and there is some tension, some people saying they

should be more on the front foot. There are economic benefits, they

argue, to leaving, and they should be loud about them. It has been

pointed out that there are five Shadow chancellors or former

chancellors who all support Brexit, Nigel Lawson, Norman Lamont, Peter

Lilley, Michael Portillo and Michael Howard and they should be put

forward to argue the economic advantages of exit. Speaking to the

leaders of their campaign, they have two things going on. The rope dope

strategy, when you have the IMF, the OECD, the Treasury, the Bank of

England, they have to take the punches and then come fighting back

and the fightback will be all around what is the cost of staying in the

EU. Poor performance economically from the Eurozone, weak levels of

growth and of course the big issue, immigration. Tomorrow the Office For

National Statistics will report on the latest figures of EU and non-EU

immigration into the UK. Vocally belief that will put them on the

front foot in the way that the economy today is less them, to an

extent, on the back foot thank you. The latest data on migration to

the UK will be published tomorrow. It will be the last chance to assess

the scale of migration Total net migration to the UK

is currently running at more than 300,000 a year,

with just under half coming Our chief correspondent,

Gavin Hewitt, has been to Bristol to find out how important

the immigration question is likely And often weighing on voters'

minds, immigration. I think many people will worry

about migration, but I think it will be the economy that will make

the final difference. Yes, we should allow more people

into this country. Migration, yeah, it's a bit

of a problem, but it's Can I give you a leaflet

about the referendum? Bristol, and the Leave campaign

making its case Increasingly at the heart

of their pitch, It's not just uncontrolled

immigration coming from the EU... Tomorrow, the eyes of the Leave

campaign will be on the final quarterly immigration figures

before the referendum. On the streets, their campaign

sparks disagreements. Britain is a pathetic little

northern European island... Stuck off there, living

in faded glories. The Leave campaign argues

the Government has broken its promise to reduce net annual

migration below 100,000. We're saying we would like to be

able to control our borders, we would like to be able to not just

have a free flow of We would actually like to be able

to open up our country Bristol has been changed

by immigration. A fifth of the population

was born outside the UK. Mateusz is uncertain what his status

would be if Britain leaves the EU. There's a lot of people coming

in from other countries, not just like Poland,

but all around from the EU and other So it's not surprising me that

people are talking about it. Many people here believe that

outside the EU there would be less immigration,

less pressure on schools But there are also warnings that

fewer migrants would mean a weaker economy, particularly

in the long term. To the north of the city,

a warehouse of skateboards and sports equipment

destined for Europe. The distribution company,

Shiner, is expanding. A quarter of the workforce

are EU migrants. We need people to do jobs,

we need people to be paying taxes in the UK so, therefore,

making it more difficult for people to migrate

is going to be bad for the economy. On the ground, the Remain camp

believes it economic The Leave campaign sees

migration as an example that Tomorrow, the battle over statistics

will be joined again. Gavin Hewitt, BBC News,

Bristol. The BBC's Reality Check team has

been examining the latest claims from both sides

of the referendum debate. You can find full analysis

at bbc.co.uk/realitycheck. In America, an investigation has

found that Hillary Clinton ignored official guidelines

when she used her private email for official purposes during her

time as Secretary of State. A spokesman for Mrs Clinton

said her practices were no different The issue has been a constant

factor in her campaign for the Democratic Party's

presidential nomination, as our North America editor,

Jon Sopel, tells us. Hillary Clinton's march

towards the Democratic nomination has been anything

but straight-forward and today, campaigning in California,

another inconvenient obstacle. And, no, we're not talking

about the microphones that didn't Instead, it's the highly

critical report from the State Department over her use

of a private email server. Her spokesman said, "Mrs Clinton had

done nothing different The report said that - "former

Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing

with department business before leaving government service and,

because she didn't do so, she didn't comply with

the department's policies that were implemented in accordance

with the Federal Records Act." And, at the State Department today,

a defensive response. While people were aware

of her use of personal email, no-one had a full and complete

understanding to the extent. Well, let me put it,

some people did have a full and complete understanding

of the extent, like she did.

Right? ...and that's a question

for her and her team to answer that. There was nothing defensive

though about Donald Trump. He was revelling in Hillary

Clinton's discomfort or "Crooked Hillary",

as he now always refers to her. She had a little bad news today,

as you know, some reports came down The Inspector General's

report - not good. The remarkable thing about this

election is that both front-runners are suffering very high disapproval

ratings in the polls. This report today won't have done

anything to help Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton's use of a pride vat

email server has been a festering problem in her campaign for the

Democratic nomination. Today doesn't draw a line under it. There is a

separate FBI investigation that could lead to her indictment. Today

is serious. Were the FBI to indict her, that could be potentially

catastrophic. Huw. Jon, many thanks again there. Jon Sopel there, our

North America editor in Washington. France has started using its fuel

reserves to deal with petrol shortages caused

by nationwide strikes. Industrial action over employment

reforms has disrupted operations A fifth of petrol stations have been

affected, with many having to close. Protests will escalate tomorrow,

with workers walking out at 19 The biggest study of suicide among

young people in England has highlighted bereavement,

bullying, exam pressure and physical health problems as some

of the main factors. Official figures show suicide among

young people is on the rise and experts say that talking openly

about suicidal thoughts, when appropriate, can reduce

the number of deaths, as our correspondent,

Michael Buchanan, explains. Suicide is the biggest killer

of people under the age When enough people tell

you something about yourself that's You get told you're worthless,

to the point where you And the only way you can

stop feeling it and stop How old were you when you first

tried to end it all? Melanie Delacourt has attempted

suicide on 14 separate occasions. The 22-year-old is open

about her psychiatric problems, but being bullied remorselessly

for years, emotionally and physically, contributed hugely

to her desire to die. None of us actually know

that we want death because we don't So it's more of a case of -

we'd rather go to something we don't It's not really wanting to die,

it's more of getting Apart from bullying,

today's research found academic pressures can also contribute

to young people killing themselves. Family bereavement and a physical

health problem like acne Although no single factor causes

suicide, the need to do well Four of the 130 deaths that

were studied occurred For a small number of people,

the stress of facing those pressures, those exam pressures,

can be too great. Getting a good education and doing

well at school that, in the end, is protective against suicide,

so it's just that we need to make sure that the means of getting

there, the pressures that people face through the exam

system, don't become too Morgan Faulkner, a lively,

inquisitive 15-year-old, He was about to sit his GCSEs,

which was stressing him, but his father says there was no

indication whatsoever that It was a consequence of things that

built up in his brain that led him to, at that very moment,

making a catastrophic decision that If he'd have known what had been

left behind, he wouldn't If he'd seen the outpouring

of grief at his funeral, Maybe he felt that people

didn't love him enough. We'll always speculate,

but he should be here today, Melanie Delacourt has written

about her psychiatric conditions to help her family

understand her problems. With suicide on the rise among

young people, experts say listening to their concerns,

sometimes openly asking if they're feeling suicidal,

can prevent more deaths. Details of some organisations that

can offer support are available on our Actionline website

at bbc.co.uk/actionline or you can listen to recorded

information by calling free, Five migrants are believed to have

died after an overcrowded fishing More than 550 people were rescued

after the vessel overturned, with Italian Navy swimmers pulling

many of them to safety. Officials say more than 5,000

migrants have been rescued in the region this week with numbers

expected to increase The new head of Marks and Spencer

says he wants to put the store's "loyal" army of female shoppers

back at the heart of its Steve Rowe, who took over as Chief

xecutive last month, calls this group of women "Mrs M"

and he says they've Our business correspondent,

Emma Simpson, has more details. Twiggy in the 60s,

flares in the 70s. Oh, how the fashions have changed -

so too have shopping habits. This business has been losing

shoppers for more than four years. She can be just about to

approach her retirement. But what's clear is that she

appreciates good things in life. She is looking for great garments

that fit and flatter. Steve, would Mrs M wear

something like this? Mrs M is going to be really

keen on that. We love, cherish and celebrate

Mrs M and I commit to making sure we're listening to her and not

telling her what to wear, Here's some of those customers

he wants to win back. They made this video in 2014,

singing a song of frustration. Steve Rowe, who's worked his way up

from the shop floor, is now taking a new approach -

less high fashion, more wearable styles and at better prices,

and he's listening. Let's see what this customer

has to say. I just think it's very,

very confusing for us ladies to find out what we're looking for,

and we want to be This lady is absolutely typical

of Mrs M I mean, you can hear that she cares

passionately about the brand. She wants us to do well and we've

been letting her down. But is he on the right

track with Mrs M? I think it's simplifying

the issue, really. I think what we're look at now

is a ?1 billion retail industry that A woman can buy anything,

from any high street in the world, This turn around is going to dent

profits, but the new boss believes it's the right thing to do secure

Marks and Spencer long-term success. Voters will go to the polls, four

weeks tomorrow, in the referendum on Britain's future in the EU

and recent polls suggest that as many as a quarter of voters

may not have decided Our home editor, Mark Easton,

is in Worcestershire tonight on the trail

of the undecided voters. Welcome to Worcestershire Huw, King

John is buried in the cathedral behind me. Across the city of

Worcester is the scene of a famous victory for the parliamentarians in

the English civil war which is why the tourist brochures like to call

it the home of British liberty and democracy. All the local MPs are

Conservatives, they can't agree on which way to vote. I've been

exploring what I call the agony of the undecideds.

The jewel of the Cotswolds, the village of Broadway epitomises

what JB Priestley called "the most English landscape, Conservative,

with large sea and small it is an ancient place

with a polished patterner of self-assurance and conviction."

But when it comes to the EU referendum, resident Tories,

like Peter Reading, finds themselves undecided.

His daily newspaper, and his party of course,

Outside the Broadway Hotel, I met Peter and his wife Joan,

among the 20% of Conservative voters who say they still haven't

There are people on either side, on the yes and the no,

who you admire their views and yet suddenly they're antagonistic views

I think my default position is probably to go out,

but my head tells me that perhaps I should stay in,

but I want to see the argument persuade me to stay in.

It's, I think, as Peter said, it's almost a head

You know, I'm British, I'm proud of being British

If I go to our largest Tescos here, there are two long aisles

I believe that countries will always evolve but, at the moment,

You know, why couldn't we have some economists do a for and against

It's a refrain you hear over and over again.

They want the arguments clearly set out.

That's probably why politicians are reporting large numbers turning

up at village and town hall meetings and referendum debates, far more

In the Cap and Gown, in central Worcester,

the saloon bar is packed for a debate on the EU.

There are supporters from both camps and the undecideds are here, too.

I think what's difficult is dealing with all the nonsense

Facts that are coming out on both sides and I find I can't

But I'm openminded to change, if I get a sensible argument

and so far I have not seen a logical, sensible argument.

You know, none of us have voted yet, we still can all be swayed in either

I think we're definitely better where we are in the EU.

We, from the Get Out campaign, do not wish to go

Normally in politics people stick to well trodden, tribal paths,

but the EU debate has left many feeling they're lost in the jungle.

In favour of the motion, that being in the EU

On the night, Remain narrowly won the debate, but many

I've seen a lot of talking heads and I'd like to look at raw data.

People say one thing, people say another thing

and you never know who's telling the truth or who's right.

Voters are having to do their own homework, consider

Whatever the result, the process has at least been

Mark Easton, BBC News, Worcestershire.