18/01/2017 BBC News at One

The EU will seek a balanced deal for Britain after Brexit says

Jean Claude Juncker says he'll try to ensure a good deal -

but Malta's Prime Minister says it shouldn't be better

We want a fair deal for the United Kingdom. That deal necessarily needs

to be inferior to membership. Here, Theresa May Defensor Brexit

plan to MPs, but is accused of bypassing Parliament over any

eventual deal. We will have the latest from Westminster and

Brussels. Also on the programme

this lunchtime... Thousands of British tourists

are being flown out of the Gambia after a state of emergency

was declared there. Unemployment falls to its lowest

level for more than a decade - with 1.6 million people now

out of work. And shock at the Australian Open

as Britain's Dan Evans pulls off the best win of his career,

beating seventh seed, Marin Cilic. And coming up in sport come's Ryder

Cup captain Thomas Bjorn gets an extra world card -- wild card choice

in a revamped accommodation for next year.

-- revamped competition for next year.

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One.

The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has

told the European Parliament that he will do everything he can

to ensure that the negotiations over Britain's exit

from the European Union end in "a good result" for all concerned.

But he also admitted the negotiations would be "very,

Our Europe correspondent Gavin Lee reports.

A clear view from Westminster, cold comfort to EU officials meeting in

Strasbourg's European Parliament today. A sad, surrealist state of

affairs, that was the brief tweet from Donald Tusk, and when the

sudden clarity was welcomed here, seven months after the Brexit vote,

the verdict from Joseph Muscutt, the Maltese president, is that he will

work to make sure that Britain doesn't get a better EU trade deal

than what is already available. This is not a happy event for us. We want

a fair deal for the United Kingdom, but that deal necessarily needs to

be inferior than membership. This should not come as a surprise to

anyone. TRANSLATION: Over the last years, I have been sorry to see that

solidarity was not always forthcoming. And I deplore the fact

that for the first time in the history of Europe, some countries

have not applied the decisions taken in an area as sensitive as asylum,

although significant progress has been made in other places. There was

reason for optimism elsewhere. Hungary's Foreign Minister called

for the widest possible trade deal, warning of the risk of making Europe

less competitive if forcing Britain to make quick trade deals elsewhere.

The clarity of Theresa May's message has brought more questions, and the

scepticism across Europe about whether a clean break from the EU is

possible. There are less than ten weeks to go until Article 50 is

triggered, and with what Theresa May has now clearly set out, negotiators

on both sides will beginning to starting to formulate their opening

positions. Theresa May has been

defending her plans for the UK During Prime Minister's Questions,

she told MPs that she wanted to put the divisions over Brexit

in the past, and work for an "outward-looking, prosperous,

tolerant and independent" Britain. But she was critisised by the Labour

leader, Jeremy Corbyn, for not giving MPs a proper

opportunity to scrutinise the deal. Here's our political

correspondent, Iain Watson. If newspapers had a vote, Theresa

May would be guaranteed a landslide election victory. But there was a

less dashing response when she faced MPs for the first time since her

speech. The Labour leader said she should have delivered it here, in

Parliament. Restoring Parliamentary democracy whilst sidelining

Parliament. Mr Speaker, it's not so much the Iron Lady, as the irony

lady. Jeremy Corbyn did not just attack the venue for the speech, but

the content, particularly the Prime Minister's warning that Britain can

become a low tax, low regulation economy if she failed to get a good

deal. Can I urge her to stop her threats of a bargain basement

Brexit? The Prime Minister quoted Jeremy Corbyn herself to argue that

Labour had no Brexit plan of their own. She has said leave the single

market then at the same time so she wants to have access to the single

market. I'm not quite sure how that's going to go down in Europe. I

think we have to have a deal that ensures we have access to the

market. LAUGHTER I've got a plan, he doesn't have a

clue. One of her own MPs urged her to debate each part of her plan here

in the House of Commons. Would she consider at least publishing all of

those 12 objectives in a White Paper, so that we can debate them

here in this place on behalf of all our constituents? What we usually

see at Prime Minister's Questions as the opposition attacking the

government, and the government responding, but Brexit cuts through

party lines and party loyalties, so there are some conservatives who are

worried that Theresa May's decision to come out of the single market,

and within the Labour Party some of Jeremy Corbyn's own backbenchers

thinks he is not taking a strong enough stance and opposing the Prime

Minister's approach. This former Shadow Chancellor said his own party

leadership should have been more vocal in standing up ownership of

the single market. For me, that is a pretty black-and-white issue and it

is something we should call out and say it is bad for our economy, that

is our GTI think as Labour the numbers of Parliament. Back in the

Commons, it was argued that leaving the single market would hit jobs and

incomes. Does the Prime Minister believes this is a price worth

paying for her Little Britain Brexit? I repeat what I said

earlier, we will be working for the best possible deal to get access to

the single market. Sow divisions within the political parties were on

display even before we begin the formal process of leaving the EU.

Iain Watson, BBC News. In a moment, we'll talk

to our assistant political editor Norman Smith in Westminster,

but first our Europe correspondent A rather conciliar truth tone struck

in the European Parliament, though it was made -- conciliar tree tone

struck, though it was made clear that negotiations will be difficult.

That's right, given that most European politicians, especially in

a place like Strasbourg here, view Brexit with incompetence ability.

There was no big well-prepared -- with incomprehensible at it was the

we're working with a view snippet from a speech, and we are working

with a view clips from a news Conference, but the tone from

Jean-Claude Juncker, who is going to be a very important figure on the

European side sounded pretty conciliatory. He was pleased with

what he called clarifications from Theresa May, and although the talks

were going to be very difficult, he was going to do his best to make

sure there was a good outcome, fair for both sides. Everyone here will

tell you the same thing. They can't afford to let Britain look like it

is better off after leaving, so at the end of this we will be left with

a semantic debate, I think, whether British negotiators and European

negotiators understand the same thing when they say that a deal is

fair and reasonable for both sides. That is where a lot of the talking

is going to come. Our Assistant Political Editor

Norman Smith is in Westminster. How much pressure is the Prime

Minister and at Westminster? You would think Mrs May would be under

huge pressure, that she would be really feeling the heat, because,

let's be clear, she has pretty much put her head on the block with a

proposed Brexit deal. More than that, she has massively ratcheted up

the stakes, by suggesting will walk away from any deal if we don't like

it by insisting that she wants to strike an agreement within two

years, which many people think is hopelessly ambitious and

unachievable, and by seeking what looks like, pretty much, a special,

golden deal for Britain, where we get everything we want from the

single market and the customs union, and we get rid of all the nasty

things we don't like. And yet, I have to say, Theresa May was oozing

confidence in the Commons today. She was on a roll, she was swatting away

criticism from the Labour leader, saying I have a plan, I'm sticking

to it, it's called leadership, you should try it. And I think the

reason for that optimism is a view that Brussels will blink first is

when it comes to Brexit, that they will not want to damage trading

links with Britain, they will not want to go down the road of tariffs.

Secondly, I think she knows she has to walk the walk to get her game

face on, if she's going to go into these negotiations, but above all, I

think she has looked at what happened to her predecessor, David

Cameron, who also went to get a deal and came back with one that was

widely derided, and I think she has concluded that if she is going to

get a good deal, she has to be prepared to bang the negotiating

table, and, if necessary, to leave the negotiating table.

The Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has said other

countries are "queuing up" to sign trade deals with the UK

Mr Johnson also said the UK would not be

"hauling up the drawbridge", despite new migration controls

He was speaking as he arrived for a two-day visit to India.

I think that the Prime Minister set out a very powerful,

very positive vision yesterday, for how we can do a deal that

will not just benefit our friends in the rest of the EU,

but also drive growth in the rest of the world.

And one of the points I am going to be making here in India

is that we think we can do free trade deals that will be for

the benefit of both our countries, both Britain and India,

Our economics editor Kamal Ahmed is in Davos.

I think, Sophie, of course in this situation where you have the world's

fifth or sixth largest economy, depending on how you measure it, no

country is going to say to and bullion Foreign Secretary, do you

know what, we don't a deal with you. Of course there are some

opportunities. Boris Johnson has said that we could start sketching

those possibilities out. He talks about writing on the back of an

envelope what kind of free trade deal we can do, which can then be

put in place once we've actually left the European Union. But anyone

who has done trade negotiation now is the last thing they are done is

written on the back of an amber lope. I went in a few weeks ago to

see some of the officials in the US Embassy, for example, the trade

deals. They brought out huge legal documents about how they approach

trade deals, so the notion that we can sign these trade deals quickly I

think is a difficult one to prosecute. Boris Johnson is in

India, for example, where there has been big clashes on immigration.

India wants to have easier access to Britain, in terms of immigration

into the country of skilled workers. Britain has not given that. So on

all these deals, there is always tension. Britain, of course, as

well, was more attractive, maybe, to some countries, because it was a

gateway into the EU. That Gateway may now be closed, but we must never

forget and this is where Boris Johnson does have some leveraged,

Britain has a big economy, a fast-growing economy, still robust,

and it is a big consumer market. So we are an attractive proposition,

but free trade deals are very difficult negotiations.

Thousands of British holiday-makers are being flown home from The Gambia

after a state of emergency was declared there.

The Foreign Office is advising people to avoid all but essential

travel to the country, after its President refused

to accept that he lost last month's election.

It is not very good news, it is basically that we are going to

evacuate everyone back home today. Today? Yes, today. It is not what

they wanted to hear, tourists in the Gambia have been told it is not

safer them to stay. Thomas Cook has five aircraft to bring almost a

thousand of its package tourists home. For those now gathering at

Banjul airport, it's been a stressful day. We just think really

it is overkill and they are just trying to frighten people. To me, it

feel stupid, because this will all be over within 24 and is the 48

hours. Asking us to leave is unnecessary I think at the moment,

but I understand that we need to do it. Tension in the Gambia has been

building for weeks. Residents are fleeing the capital, as are some

government ministers, as the political crisis threatens to become

violent. At its centre, this man, Azzedine Yahya Jammeh, who has

refused to accept the results of last month's elections and declared

a state of emergency -- President Yahya Jammeh. If it is allowed to

continue, it may lead to a state of public emergency. Opposition leader

Adama Barrow was due to be sworn in tomorrow. A group of West African

nations has threatened military action if he is not given power, so

last night the British government issued this warning to tourists.

The Gambia's reputation as a safe haven in the sun is now in jeopardy,

with thousands of tourists queueing up to leave, and the country edging

closer to instability and conflict. Richard Lister, BBC News.

Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level

The jobless total dropped by just over 50,000

between September and November - and now stands at 1.6 million.

The figures also show that average earnings were up by 2.7%

But, as our economics correspondent Andy Verity reports,

after years of rapid growth, the number of people in employment

is no longer growing - and hasn't done since July.

This farmer and food processor near King's Lynn in Norfolk supplies

root vegetables like carrots to all the major food retailers

It is being forced to offer higher wages to attract the people it needs

to do the work, regardless of the living wage.

It says that is because the supply of workers from

the rest of the European Union has now gone into reverse.

We are struggling to fill positions at the

It is a very fluid marketplace with inflation in wages

in our sector at the minute, which is being driven by some EU

citizens going home and moving from the UK

In the three months to the end of November, the number of

unemployed people dropped by 52,000 to 1.6 million.

It remains at its lowest rate in 12 years, 4.8%.

The average weekly pay packet was ?477,

up by ?12 compared to a year ago, or 2.7%.

Businesses cannot always pass on the higher cost of labour by

Simon will have to wait until he renegotiates his contract

with his customers, the food companies and

retailers, and they will not want big price increases.

All of us are looking to try and recoup some of

And I think the load has got to be shared by all and that

If tighter labour markets are offering modestly

paid workers the chance to bid up their wages,

many economists will see that as positive.

I think we are seeing quite a robust end to the UK

economy, it is very consistent with all the other economic

Hiring has not slowed down materially, and people are finding

jobs and finding jobs actually with improved wage levels.

But there has been a marked change since the

For 20 years now the number of people in work in the UK

In the three months to the end of November,

it dipped slightly and it is now no higher than it was in July.

A wheelchair user has partially won his case at the Supreme Court

Doug Paulley took legal action because he couldn't board a bus

in Leeds when a woman with a pram refused to move.

Our disability correspondent Nikki Fox reports.

As he makes his way to the Supreme Court on one

of the most important days of his life, Doug Paulley

is about to find out whether his nearly five-year legal

battle will end in victory for all disabled people who need

This all began back in 2012 when Doug was unable to catch a bus

because the space for wheelchairs was occupied by a mum

She refused to move, which meant that Doug could not get on.

Inside court, all seven judges unanimously agreed that

First Group's policy of requesting and not requiring a person to vacate

As it does not go as far as insisting someone

I feel like it will create a cultural shift and that is

So people will be aware of the fact that the wheelchair area

is for wheelchair users and that they should take priority.

The impact of today's judgment will still have wider implications.

For example, any service provider with a space for disabled people

will not just have to request that a non-disabled person move,

For example, a bus driver may refuse to move from a bus stop in order

First Group admit they may have to amend the training

they provide their bus drivers following the verdict today.

We really welcome the fact that the court has confirmed that

a driver is not required to remove a passenger from a bus

if they are refusing to move from this space.

That is really important for drivers to have that clarity.

I'm really happy with today's ruling.

It's great that after five years of fighting and campaigning

by so many people, that we have got a ruling that says that disabled

people to have the right to catch a bus and that the bus company must

make all reasonable efforts to make that possible.

Today's Supreme Court ruling is not clear-cut but it does pave the way

for a closer look at legislation when it comes to prioritising access

The EU will seek a balanced deal for Britain after Brexit says

the head of the European commission - but any deal has to

be "inferior" to full membership of the EU.

Our American road trip has become a river trip today. Donald Trump says

he wants to get the country moving again but how is he going to do that

and how can he afford it. Dan Evans earns the biggest win

of his career, stunning 7th seed Marin Cilic in the second

round of the Australian During the US election campaign

Donald Trump pledged to make America great again,

but as he prepares to take office In the week that Donald Trump

will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States,

Jon Kay is on a road trip through the heart of America

on 'Route 45' to find out how Americans are feeling about Trump's

presidency and whether he can deliver what he's pledged to when it

comes to rebuilding America. Today as he continues

on his journey south - If you want to understand

Donald Trump's election win, Next to Route 45, the Ohio River

meets the Mississippi. It's an essential artery for the US

economy, carrying 18 million tons But things aren't

what they used to be. The locks which boats pass

through here have seen better days. Nearly 100 years old,

they regularly break down, A boat could be waiting out for 52

hours before coming through? Mark, the lock keeper,

says it's a struggle The concrete is starting

to break up and crumble. Every time it gets hit

by a boat as it lands on it, it puts pressure on it and causes

more cracks and more stress on it, we patch it together

and try and keep it going, Donald Trump has pledged $1 trillion

to rebuild America's rivers, A promise that's won him plenty

of support round here. But he hasn't said where

the money will come from. We drive on, into

America's rural South. There are two million

farms in this country. Will a property developer president

understand this business? At the University of Tennessee,

students are learning how to weigh Stick it in, press it

forward, pull it out. There are going to be some are gonna

be more willing to go forward Donald Trump won nearly 80%

of the vote in the Martin area. They like his confidence and in turn

they have confidence in him. He might have a few mess-ups

on the way, but eventually But is farming compatible

with Trump's plans for building? What about the land,

the environment? Donald Trump is a man

you associate with skyscrapers and New York City, not with farming

and places like this. Do you think he understands

you and what you want to do? I think he's going to help the small

town people also out. I don't think he's just

going to be the big city man What about farming, does

he understand farming? Not as well as some

agriculture people. Whether it's agriculture

or infrastructure, in these communities away from Washington,

many feel Trump will be a president Someone not just following

the political herd. And we continued the road trip

tomorrow, continuing south to Mississippi.

Latest figures show Accident and Emergency departments

in Wales have again failed to meet their targets

Meanwhile, the Chief Inspector of Hospitals in England has

warned that patient safety is being compromised

Our health editor, Hugh Pym, is with me.

The system in Wales is under a lot of pressure. All reminders about

pressure right across the system across the UK. Today we have figures

from December in Wales, and the key for hours percentage of patients

treated or assessed should be 95% but in December it was 81%, well

short of that. No other part of the UK it has to be said is hitting 95%

of England and Scotland are ahead, Northern Ireland is behind Wales. We

also learned from Wales that possible chiefs are saying in

December of those admitted to A 20% of patients were over the age of

85. That was double normal levels. Another indication of the kind of

pressure that the NHS is facing. There has been a high-level warning

that the NHS needs more money. So Mike Richards 's chief inspector of

hospitals in England at the Care Quality Commission. So not just a

warning from another think tank, this is a regulator saying because

of the strain on the NHS he is concerned about patient safety and

thinks that more money will be required. This is what he had to

say. I believe the government will need

to put more money into the NHS, but if it does, and when it does,

I think it's very important I think we need to transform

the NHS, we need to have much greater integration between GPs,

primary care, care homes and hospitals,

and that is beginning to emerge. And those new models of care

will are important and can deliver Now the government says it has given

the NHS in England the money requires, although that is

contested. The government also says it is pushing for further

integration but I think this warning from a very senior player in the

world of health, that more needs to be done is quite significant. Given

how volatile the debate is about the NHS generally.

Police say that there are now more than 1000 cases of alleged

historical child sexual abuse in football

The figures come from the National Police Chiefs' Council.

They say the estimated number of victims now stands

And almost 200 potential suspects have been identified.

The Mobile operator EE has been fined ?2.7 million

for overcharging tens of thousands of customers.

The penalty was imposed by telecoms regulator Ofcom -

after an investigation found that the UK's biggest mobile network

overcharged customers using the '150' customer services

number within the EU and billed them even

EE has apologised and says it has put measures in place to prevent

Britain's Dan Evan has pulled off the best win of his career

at the Australian open as he knocked out the number 7 seed Marin Cilic

Less of a surprise was Andy Murray's easy victory over

Russia's Andrey Rublev which takes him through

Dan Evans is no stranger to winning against the odds. On the verge of

quitting tennis a couple of years ago he has now beaten to the top ten

players in the world in the last couple of weeks. Today's big scalp,

Marin Cilic, who looked too much for Dan Evans in the first set. He won

it 6-3 as Evan struggled with the sinking sun. As the shadows

lengthened Evans came to die. Breaking the Cilic serve to take the

second set. And belief blossoming in the darkness, he dominated the third

as well. The fourth set turned into a battle but Evans was edging it.

And Cilic was struggling to keep up. With a wicked Cilic seven, Evans

took his chance. And what to do after the biggest Grand Slam winner

of your career, get straight on the phone, of course. With seven

through, Andy Murray was just getting started, he beat Russian

teenager Andrey Rublev in straight sets but the whack -- the match was

not without drama. For a time it looked like the world number one's

Melbourne chances were gone. Andy Murray has an appointment with an

ice pack but Dan Evans is unlikely to be feeling any of his aches and

pains tonight. Not a bad day of work for a player once described as the

most wasted talent in British tennis. A train from China has big

campus first ever to make the journey across Asia and Europe and

arrived in the UK. The engine took 80 days to make the trip to the UK,

half the time of the equivalent journey by sea. They travelled

through Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus before heading to the

Channel Tunnel. At this time of the year a place in

the sun might hold some appeal. Or maybe not. This is the scene from

just outside Benidorm. And that train journey would have been

conducted across a pretty cold Europe at the moment. Some of that

cold air has made its way into the south-east. So you get a glorious

start the day if frosty. -7 overnight in some places in Kent.

And about 8 degrees on the other hand across many parts of northern

Scotland thanks to low from the Atlantic for the high pressure still

dominant, fairly settled but quite a variety. And we keep that team going

over the next couple of hours. If you are thinking about the school

run or a dog walk, some rain around across the Northern Isles. Coming

down to be weather front then it is pretty miserable, quite murky across

the West Midlands. The best of the guaranteed sunshine perhaps that the

southern counties of England and perhaps just creeping into parts of

Wales. But not doing much for those temperatures, stuck around four or 5

degrees. And as soon as the sun goes down, the temperatures will again

fall away. Not so much where you keep that cloud. Somewhere in the

south again looking at around minus four degrees. So here we go again on

Thursday, something of a repeat performance with the best of the

Sunshine across southern counties. Some gaps further north are

possible. But again the temperature is nothing to write home about

despite what you see the sunshine. Five, six, 7 degrees. And the

weather pretty much the same on Friday. There is a general evening

out of those temperatures. And here's the thing, getting into the

weekend high pressure is still the dominant feature. But if it looks

threatening in the Atlantic do not worry, high pressure will be

dominant on Saturday and on through the weekend which will be mainly dry

with some sunshine. If you want to get involved with Weather Watchers,

those are the details. A reminder of our main

story this lunchtime. The EU will seek a balanced deal

for Britain after Brexit says the head of the European commission

- but any deal has to be "inferior" That's all from the BBC News at One

- so it's goodbye from me -