09/05/2014 BBC London News

Good evening. Welcome to BBC London news. A group of MPs is calling for

the Metropolitan Police to be stripped of its responsibility for

counter`terrorism. It's urging the Government to change the way

terrorism is tackled in the UK, and says powers should be transferred to

a national body so Scotland Yard can concentrate on policing in the

capital. Alex Bushill reports. I am addressing you brothers. Their

faces may be disguised, but not their accidents. It is thought

around 400 Britons have travelled abroad for jihad. This young man was

killed last summer, and this estate agent and his brother died last year

fighting pro`Assad forces. Today, the home affairs committee said that

more should be done to stop people travelling to Syria, and to make

sure they are not a danger when they return home. The committee's key

recommendation is to remove responsibility for tackling

counter`terrorism from the Metropolitan police and transfer it

to the National Crime Agency. MPs also called for improved oversight.

The committee's chair believes freeing the Met Office role will

free the Met Office up to police the capital. The best place for

counter`terrorism is with the National Crime Agency, working with

the Met and Greater Manchester Police in the West Midlands police

and the other regional forces. It doesn't mean there is going to be no

responsibility, just that it will be a national basis. But opponents say

that the current system works well, and reverting to FBI model poses a

risk. That have been no deaths recently as a result of suicide

bombing in the United Kingdom. That is a record we can be proud of. It

is undermining the system to suggest that we change it. There is no doubt

the challenge from extremism is a complicated and changing one.

Today's proposals are just one suggestion for how our security

forces and the Met can rise to the challenge.

Well, Alex is outside Scotland Yard for us this evening. Alex, what

what's been the response to this? Any move to strip Scotland Yard of

its control of counter`terrorism would be extremely controversial.

Lord Blair has been speaking about this today, and he is fundamentally

opposed to the recommendations. He says the current system is already

based on a national level, which is what the Met does. He said very few

of the terrorist plots he had ever heard about emerged from all are

aimed at London. The Home Office have confirmed that they are to

carry out a review to see if there are improvements that can be made.

Alex, thank you very much. A 55`year`old man has appeared in

court in Surrey charged with carrying out a robbery after he had

absconded from an open prison. Michael Wheatley, who's nicknamed

Skull Cracker, was arrested in East London on Wednesday.

weapon and being on the run illegally. He was remanded in

custody. A man has been arrested in

connection with the murder of a woman who was founded dead at her

home in north London this morning. The woman in her 60s was found with

stab wounds at her flat in Kentish Town, which had been set on fire.

Three other women, a man and a baby were rescued from other flats in the

building. 44`year`old Peter Holboll is being held at a north London

police station. There's been a big rise in the

number of Londoners who are in work but unable to pay their rent.

Government figures, highlighted by the Labour Party, show the number of

workers claiming housing benefit has gone up 70% since the coalition came

to power. Labour says it's costing taxpayers billions, but ministers

insist the numbers are now dropping. Nick Beake has the story.

We are not in a position to pay. They are the face of what Labour

likes to call the cost of living crisis. This lady explained her

housing situation to shadow ministers. She looks after her

ten`year`old autistic daughter while her tenure all works `` while her

husband works full`time, but he doesn't earn enough to pay the rent,

so they claim Housing Benefit. It is not an option. You have to do so,

because the rent is so huge. Research commissioned by Labour

shows there were just over 150,000 Londoners in work but claiming

Housing Benefit in May 2010, when the coalition came to power. That

had jumped to more than 250,000 by the end of last year, a 69%

increase. The biggest rises were in Barking and Dagenham, Haver in and

Redbridge, but in Croydon, there was an 11 fold increase. That is truly

shocking. It is a huge drain on taxpayers' money, but it also

affects how so many families, including here in Croydon, are

struggling with the rising cost of living. So why has the increase been

so dramatic in Croydon? One significant factor is said to be the

sheer number of people who have moved here to this outer borough

because they can no longer afford to live more centrally.

The Department for Work and Pensions claim to date was in fact cutting

the cost of Housing Benefit. It told us:

All agree housing is one of the biggest challenges London faces.

Solutions can't come soon enough for the likes of Simone.

The double Olympic champion Laura Trott was taken to hospital earlier

with suspected concussion after crashing during the Women's Tour of

Britain. The 22`year`old came off her bike after riding into a crash.

She's now been discharged and has vowed to ride tomorrow when the race

starts in her home town of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire.

That's it. We'll be back tomorrow. Now let me hand you over to Sarah

Keith Lucas for a look at the weekend weather.

It was a bit hit and miss today, and that is the way it looks for the

next couple of days. Tomorrow is windy, with heavy showers on the

card will stop tonight, an area of rain, quite heavy at times, heading

in. That will clear away tomorrow to leave sunny spells and scattered

showers. Some brightness in between, temperatures up to 17 or 18

Celsius. Staying and settled over the next few days. John Hammond will

take you through your National forecast, where things are looking

pretty unsettled for the next couple of days.

Good evening. In this country, no two days of whether are stacked in

this country, no two days of whether are Saky the same. But this weekend,

it will feel like no two hours are the same. This area of low pressure

is pushing in from the south-west, already bringing some pretty wet

weather to southern and western parts of the UK. The rain will move

northwards and eastwards, quite a lot of rain in places. Technically a

fairly mild night, particularly in the south, but a lot of rain around

to start the day. Behind that, the