20/03/2017 BBC News at One

Theresa May will trigger Article 50 a week on Wednesday,

starting the formal process of Britain leaving

It's the starting gun for formal talks on the terms of Britain's

departure and on its future relations with the EU.

We'll be bringing you the very latest from our correspondents

A home care crisis - the BBC finds 95 contracts

with local councils cancelled in the last three months,

Labour at loggerheads - a row erupts as the deputy leader

alleges an internal plot to take over the party.

He says we need to take control of the Labour Party.

He even says that a General Election might get in the

That seems to me like there is a secret plan to take

A return to Rio: six months after the end of the Games,

we assess the legacy of the Olympics for Brazil and its athletes.

And Happy Birthday to the forces' sweetheart: events to mark the 100th

And coming up in the sport on BBC News:

Uk Anti-Doping says it's alarmed by a BBC Poll that has has pointed

towards a problem with doping in amateur sport.

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One.

Wednesday March 29th - that's the date confirmed this

morning by Downing Sreet when it will trigger Article 50,

thereby formally starting negotiations for the UK to leave

It will come in the form of a letter to the European Council,

and will mark the start of a two-year process

Downing Street said it hoped the negotiations would start

It also this morning moved to squash speculation that Theresa May might

Our political correspondent Eleanor Garnier reports.

In Swansea today on a charm offensive. The Prime Minister has

promised to visit all the devolved nations before triggering Article

50. As she starts the negotiations to leave the European Union, she is

on a mission to sell Brexit and wants all parts of the UK on-board.

When people voted in the referendum last year, it wasn't just about

leaving the EU, I think they did vote for change. They voted for

change in the way the country works, to make sure that it works for

everyone and not just a privileged few. As part of that, we want to

build, we have a plan for Britain and part of that is about building a

stronger economy. Next Wednesday, nine months after the referendum,

the result will be put into action. It will start the clock ticking for

two years of negotiations with the rest of the EU. Two years of

complex, all consuming debate and intense diplomacy for the

government. As ministers start to piece together what our relationship

with the EU will look like. It means finding solutions to issues like

reciprocal rights of EU migrants, plus working out how much it will

cost Britain to leave the EU, and what our future economic links will

look like. Many are predicting the talks will be tough. Theresa May

needs to get the terms agreed by all the other 27 member states. And if

it all goes to plan, and in line with the official timetable, Brexit

should happen in March 2000 19. Eleanor Garnier, BBC News,

Westminster. Well, in a moment we'll speak

to our correspondent Dan Johnson, who's in Brussels, but first let's

go to Vicki Young in Westminster. Vicky, we knew this

was coming, but this It may just be a day, but it will

have huge, significant ramifications affecting almost every part of

British life. I think first of all in political terms attention will

turn to what kind of deal, if any, Theresa May can get. It's incredibly

controversial, she's said already that Britain will leave the single

market that is causing her to have a lot of people saying this is the

wrong thing to do, that it is damaging and divisive for the

economy. Questions about whether Britain will have two stump up a

massive bill before the talks even start, and then of course about our

future relationship. Will we get a trade deal? Will we get a deal that

is beneficial to Britain? And then running parallel to that is also

what goes on in here, this place, in Parliament. The great repeal bill,

which will put all of the existing EU law into British law, has to go

through Parliament. It will take up many hours, days and months. There

will also be alongside that, of course, new systems put in place. We

will have a whole new immigration system. What about fishing and

agriculture and customs? That all needs new legislation. This will

dominate political life and the economy for many years to come. Dan

Johnson in Brussels, what has the reaction been there to the news? The

message here this morning was, we are ready for this, we are waiting,

bring it on. The official EU spokesman said he had nicked

notification this morning that that letter would be sent next week. He

said, we're ready for that letter, everything is ready on this side.

Sources over the weekend have said they feel the EU negotiating team

here is better prepared than the UK's own team. Donald Tusk, the

council president, said within 48 hours of receiving that letter he

will put down draft guidelines for the 27 remaining members of the EU

to consider. It could then take four or five or six weeks for them to on

the negotiating position but they have done a lot of that difficult

work already. Nobody here is giving the message that Britain is going to

be done any favours. There has been a hardline message over the weekend

from the commission president talking to a German newspaper,

Jean-Claude Juncker, saying that Britain's choice is to eat what is

on the table or not come to the table at all, specifically referring

to that Brexit bill, more than ?50 billion being banded around as a

figure by EU negotiators. That is one area where there will be a lot

of issues and debates. Rights for EU citizens is another area to be

worked out as well. A lot, lakes details to be worked out. It will

take a lot of time and a lot of negotiating, but the main headline

today is that we now know that Britain, if everything goes to plan,

is set to leave the EU at the end of March 2000 19. Just before the

parliamentary elections in four years' time. Thank you.

Meanwhile, Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has claimed

that the party is facing a "battle for its existence" because of

what he described as a "secret plan" by a trade union to back a left-wing

Mr Watson said the union, Unite, was planning to provide

funds to Momentum, a campaign group which helped

Jeremy Corbyn become leader, in a bid to takeover the party.

Our political correspondent Iain Watson reports.

Is this left-wing faction planning to change the Labour Party out of

all recognition? In 2015 many of those on the left campaign for

Jeremy Corbyn to become leader formed a new group called Momentum.

Now Labour's deputy leader is accusing it of a secret plan that

would threaten Labour's very existence. Is this secret hard left

plan to take over the Labour Party comes to pass then our very

electoral existence is in danger and it needs to stop. Tom Watson had

been listening to a secret recording obtained by the Observer newspaper

this man, John Landman. He seemed to be suggesting that moving Labour to

left was his priority. One of those changes would be to

Labour's leadership rules. Currently, candidates need 15% of

MPs to back them before they even get onto the ballot. That is a

difficult hurdle for left-wingers to overcome, so the plan is to ignore

it. But Momentum members say there is

nothing in this recording that demonstrates they are actually

plotting to take over the Labour Party. In fact they say it was

simply a recording made at a public meeting. And there is nothing wrong

with trying to get their views across. But Labour's deputy leader

has also suggested that Britain's biggest union, United, is trying to

fund attempts to move Labour further to the left. Officials deny the

accusation. There are no plans for Unite to affiliate Momentum. Tom

could have Victor up the phone and called me and I would have been

happy to reassure him. It does feel rather like this is Tom Watson

meddling and interfering with Unite. We have a general secretary election

going on at the moment and it seems a bit more about that than anything

else. Labour is still trailing the Conservatives in the polls. It's

hard to see how its divisions will close that gap.

Our Assistant Political Editor Norman Smith

Norman, picking up on Ian's point, can Labour really afford to be doing

this at a time like this? Well, these are extraordinary and

incendiary claims which you might have expected from a hostile

newspaper or a Conservative MP, but they come from Jeremy Corbyn's

number two, the deputy leader of the Labour Party. Secondly, he's gone

public with them, knowing full well the sort of damaging headlines about

Labour civil war that will inevitably ensue. And the claims

themselves are explosive, namely that there is an organised plot

orchestrated by the leader of Britain's biggest union, Labour's

biggest financial backer, to bankroll Momentum and seize control

of the Labour Party, to topple anti-Corbyn MP 's and get rid of

critical councillors and seize the party machinery. Claims that are all

denied by Unite, by Momentum, by close allies of Mr Corbyn. But it

raises fundamental questions about what is going on at the top level of

the Labour Party. You get a sense of the hostility and the animosity

between key players like Tom Watson, like Len McCluskey. It also raises

questions about Labour's prospects, frankly, in the local elections just

six weeks away, and it will raise fears about many people who question

at a time of massive change with Brexit and a threat to the union,

how capable Labour is of acting like an effective opposition or whether

it is now so immersed in its own internal warfare and hostility that

it simply cannot oppose Theresa May. Norman, many thanks. Norman Smith,

there. Home care companies have warned

of a funding crisis that means they can't recruit or retain staff

to meet growing demand. Research commissioned for the BBC's

Panorama programme suggests nearly one in four companies are at risk

of insolvency, with 69 closing Our Wales Correspondent

Sian Lloyd reports. Amanda Hopewell is one of the UK's

800,000 home care workers. Today she is with former

teacher William Williams, Amanda is paid ?7.55 an hour,

just above the National Living Wage. Like many care workers,

she struggles to make ends meet. She's also on a zero hours contract,

which means her hours I did look into buying

a house four years ago. But because I didn't

have a contract, they wouldn't allow me to buy a house

or anything like that. Amanda is one of 200 staff

employed by a family run It is paid by local councils

to provide home care But it currently has 30 staff

vacancies and is struggling Last year, the company

stopped providing care for one local council,

Conwy, and handed back the contract. We didn't think that we could

provide this level of service for that amount of money that

Conwy were offering. We were very, very reluctant

to leave, but we had to leave. Conwy Council says it is committed

to supporting vulnerable people in communities,

despite facing financial challenges. Our research reveals that

across the UK almost 100 councils have had home care contracts handed

back to them. Across the water in Liverpool,

there are similar pressures. The City Council will receive

an extra ?27 million. Following this month's budget

announcement of an extra But the director of adult

social services says it's After two or three years,

if the system doesn't change, I don't think we'll be able

to maintain the service The UK Government declined to be

interviewed but in a statement said it will be bringing forward

proposals later this year to ensure a more financially sustainable

social care system. With more of us living

longer and a growing shortage of care workers,

the pressure on people like Amanda You can see Panorama -

The Home Care Crisis, on BBC One tonight at half past

eight, except for viewers in Wales, who can see the investigation

on Week In, Week Out, Police are questioning a 33-year-old

man on suspicion of murdering a one-year-old boy at a flat

in north London. He's also being held over

the attempted murder Lets speak to our

correspondent Richard Galpin. Richard, what is the latest? As you

say, the man who was arrested on Sunday evening, a 33-year-old who is

believed to be the children's father, is still in police custody.

I've just been speaking to Scotland Yard and they are saying they are

still questioning him and because this is a murder investigation, they

could hold him for a few days more before they have to finally

As for the two children found in a flat in this road here with such

severe injuries, obviously we now know that the boy, just a -year-old,

died after being taken to hospital. The medical staff were not able to

save him. But the girl is still alive, she is also just a -year-old.

But she is in a critical condition and today has had to be moved to a

different hospital to get specialist treatment and is reported to be

fighting for her life. Richard, thank you. Richard Galpin.

Athletes and figures involved with last year's Olympic

and Paralympic Games in Rio have told the BBC that they're angry

and frustrated by the failure to provide any meaningful

Exactly six months after the 2016 Games came to an end,

many of the sporting venues remain empty, with companies and public

Our correspondent Wyre Davies covered the Rio games for us,

and he's been back to the city to send this report.

For five weeks last summer, Rio de Janeiro was the centre of the

Host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Exactly six months later the stage is empty.

Rio's Olympic Park, which should by now be operating as a sporting

centre of excellence, is eerily quiet.

and lost are little more than warehouses.

Venues that should have been dismantled, some to be rebuilt

It's not the one that those who campaign for Rio to win

I feel that Olympic Games in Brazil was not so

successful because the legacy was not the number one.

We delivered a good Games, we had a lot of problems, and

we keep with them and nobody's doing anything for change.

This is the Olympic tennis arena where Andy Murray won

his second consecutive Olympic gold medal.

For now this is being run like many other venues in the

Olympic Park by the Brazilian sports ministry because no private company

or want to take on the huge running costs.

Team Brazil missed its own medal targets at Rio 2016.

Archer Ane Marcelle came a creditable ninth

place but has since lost her funding and her coach.

Improving on Rio and even making the Tokyo games will be tough.

TRANSLATION: A month after the Games, they cut everything.

My health insurance, my salary, everything.

We made history in archery but it's all over.

It made me think my sacrifice wasn't worth it.

Such was Rio's desperation to get things ready on time legacy was

the last thing on anyone's minds, says one official who had worked

previously on the London Games and wishes to remain anonymous.

I never once had a conversation about legacy

at any point or in any discussion that I had working on the Games.

You have to remember this was a Games

where we were scrambling to put the event on on a day-by-day basis.

There was no time to think about what was

going to happen the day after the Games finished in September.

There were undoubtably improvements in Rio

In public transport, some infrastructure, and

I think that there are still promises

But I do believe that we still have time to

work on those promises and the promise that

on is the delivery of the Olympic Park

and improvements in the sports legacy.

A brand-new velodrome built at huge expense barely used, its

A state-of-the-art white-water course

meant to become a public pool after the Games remains closed off.

Wyre Davis, BBC News, Rio de Janeiro.

Theresa May will trigger Article 50 in nine days' time,

starting the formal process of Britain leaving

Doping abuse - are the wheels coming off British amateur sport?

Coming up in sport at half-past on BBC News:

tributes to the Derry City captain Ryan McBride who has died

The FBI director, James Comey, will give evidence to Congress later

about alleged Russian meddling in last year's Presidential election

- speaking publicly for the first time about an issue which has

He's also expected to face questions about a second explosive issue -

President Trump's claim that his predecessor, Barack Obama,

authorised a wire-tap of Trump Tower during the campaign.

Our correspondent Richard Lister reports.

Did Russia help Donald Trump wind power? It's a question that dogged

his campaign and one which Mr Trump was never quite able to shake. I

don't know Putin. He's said nice things about me, if we got along

well that would be good. That's because he'd rather have a puppet as

President of the United States. No puppet! This morning the President

was back on the offensive tweeting the Democrats made up and pushed the

Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. But in

January US intelligence agencies said President Putin certainly have

tried to influence the election but they found no evidence that the

Trump campaign was involved. Welcome to the stage... The story was banned

further by the sudden departure of the President's national Security

adviser Michael Flynn when it turned out he had been misleading about his

talks with the Russian Ambassador. Then came this from his Justice

Secretary Jeff Sessions. That didn't happen, I did not have

communications with the Russians. It turned out he had met the Russian

ambassador in his office and the FBI Director has said nothing publicly

about any investigation into the Trump team and Russia. He may not

even confirm whether one exists but he will be asked. All the political

parties now are paying attention to the threat Russia poses so we are

going to highlight that, we will highlight the fact we know the

Russians were trying to get involved in our campaign like they have for

many decades. They are also trying to get involved in campaigns around

the world. And what about the claim that the British intelligence agency

GCHQ was ordered by President Obama to spy on Mr Trump? GCHQ said it was

nonsense, the White House promised not to repeat it. Will be FBI

Director address it? I expect that he will and I hope we can put an end

to this wild goose chase because what the President said was just

patently false. The allegations about wiretaps, computer hacks and

Russia continued to swirl around the White House. Today's congressional

hearings won't end this debate, they may shed a little more light on it.

Richard Lister, BBC News. A doctor who assessed the Ebola

survivor nurse Pauline Cafferkey on her return to the UK

from Sierra Leone, is being quizzed over whether she concealed

Ms Cafferkey's true temperature. Dr Hannah Ryan is appearing before

the General Medical Council, accused of 'misleading

and dishonest' conduct. Let's speak to our health

correspondent Dominic Hughes. Dominate, what happened at the

hearing? Well, Dr Hannah Ryan was one of a group of NHS medics who

volunteered to go out to Sierra Leone at the height of the Ebola

epidemic in 2015, she is on the right of the shot with dark hair

standing next to another nurse called Donna Wood on the left, and

when she and Donna Wood and Pauline Cafferkey arrived back at Heathrow

at the end of 2014 after a very tough stint in Sierra Leone they

found a scene of what they described as chaos, a crowded, noisy,

screening centre at Heathrow. In order to help the medics they agreed

to take their own temperatures to make sure they were clear of Ebola

because an elevated temperature was one sign you might be coming down

with Ebola. When they took Pauline Cafferkey's temperature Dr Ryan saw

that it was over 38 Celsius, above the cut-off point. She says she was

filled with disbelief, fear and panic and became paralysed. And then

at that point someone suggested they record a lower temperature and that

was what happened. So she has admitted knowing that Pauline

Cafferkey's temperature was higher, she has admitted with going along

with recording a lower temperature but she denies misconduct by her

actions at the airport. OK, Dominic. Thank you.

Drug use at every level of sport is "fast becoming a crisis"

The agency has been responding to a BBC poll into doping in amateur

sport, which found that more than a third of sports people

who are not professionals say they personally know someone

Our sports correspondent Katie Gornall reports as part

of the BBC's week-long series on the State of Sport.

Fame, glory, money, there are many reasons why professional athletes

take performance-enhancing drugs, and sport is overwhelmed

The disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has ended years

of denial by admitting using performance-enhancing drugs.

But what might be harder to understand is why amateur

Dan Stevens is a former amateur cyclist.

A few years ago he started taking a number of substances

He was banned in 2014 after refusing to take a test.

I'd always been a clean athlete and this situation happened with me

The real thing for me wasn't really about racing.

I didn't do a lot of racing on these substances.

The main thing was curiosity, what does this do?

How much of a benefit does this give you?

I don't think in the amateur ranks it's about winning.

I think you've got a situation where somebody is overweight,

needs something they can get on, get in shape and they get in shape.

They then get railroaded into doing a marathon or a long bike ride

or some kind of competitive event and they prove their fitness levels

again and they become a healthy individual.

It becomes more body conscious and health orientated.

And this is far from an isolated case.

A poll carried out for the BBC of amateur sports people in the UK

found that half believe the use of performance-enhancing substances

A similar number say those drugs are easily available among those

More than a third say they personally know

someone who has doped, and 8% said they had taken steroids.

Certainly the figures as regards the prevalence of performance

enhancing substances at an amateur level are incredibly alarming.

That said, they do confirm what UK Anti-Doping has long suspected,

and also seen through some of our intelligence led testing.

This is the front line in the fight to keep sport clean.

A joint operation between police and UK Anti-Doping, targeting

However, it's not against the law to use steroids for personal use,

so for those motivated by vanity rather than victory, are they really

We took our findings to an expert in doping behaviour

This is actually the dark side of exercise.

Using substances not to improve your health,

you don't care about your health anymore, you care about your

performance and how you look to other people, or how

Just how serious a health issue do you think this could be?

You're using substances that are meant to treat diseases.

And you're actually misusing them without any prescription,

not just cheating or not cheating if you are an exerciser, but you're

But however the authorities respond to the issue,

athletes at every level, in every sport will always be

Now in honour of Dame Vera Lynn, who's celebrating her 100th

birthday, a 350-foot image of her has been projected

The singer said she was thrilled by the tributes -

and would be thinking of all those servicemen who'd glanced back

at the cliffs as they'd headed off to war.

Well, our correspondent Duncan Kennedy is in Dover.

It may be the Spring Equinox but it feels like we are midwinter on top

of the very famous White Cliffs of Dover. That didn't dampen the spirit

of the veterans and families who have turned up today to celebrate

Dame Vera Lynn's 100th birthday. Dame Vera Lynn herself couldn't make

it, she is too frail for that but she did send a message saying she's

very happy that people still remember her.

When you're a centenarian national treasure only the crown jewels of

symbolism will do. # They'll be bluebirds over... #

From projections over the famous cliffs to a rendition of a lullaby

that became the soundtrack of a nation in peril, all to mark the

100th birthday of Dame Vera Lynn. Hers was the voice that soothed the

fears of the million servicemen heading to war and the hearts of

countless families waiting at home. Speaking at her home in Sussex to

mark her birthday Dame Vera said an early brush with a voice coach

almost put her off singing. I didn't have singing lessons, I

just went once. I thought I could extend my range but when she heard

me sing she says, "No, I can't train that voice. It's not a natural

voice. " so I said, "Well, thank you very much, Madame." And left. Dame

Vera was too frail to make it to the birthday tribute in Dover today but

figures from her past did gather, this gentle scene of nostalgia. Real

World War II veterans were there too, like Bob Piper, who recalls her

morale boosting voice as he went off to fight in Normandy.

Her voice came through clear and with it was the story as she sang.

And it gave you hope of coming home. The bracing winds of the Channel

didn't deter those like Bob from saluting Dame Vera above the cliffs

she sang into immortality. Dame Vera herself described reaching 100 as an

incredible adventure of song, dance and friendship. And adventures she

continues to share with a grateful nation.

Well, Dame Vera herself is spending the day quietly at her home in

Sussex, Sir Paul McCartney said in tribute that she was like family.

Duncan, many thanks. Duncan Kennedy. Time for a look at the weather -

here's John Hammond. Lemmy dangle the carrot, next week

looks good but before that happens Brace yourself it doesn't look that

pretty and it will feel like winter over the next couple of days and

some cold air gushes down from the north-west, and the cold front

responsible for that change in the weather is bringing quite a lot of

rain, this is the soggy scene in the west Midlands as I speak, some very

heavy rain tracking down to East Anglia and the south-east. It

doesn't last for ever, mind you, because the Northwest, Scotland,

Northern the skies are more broken with sunshine and weather watchers

have been active this morning. This is the sunny Singh in the west

Highlands, that blue sky is not to be trusted because we have some

heavy and wintry showers over the high grind as it turns colder,

strong winds across the far north for a time forced stop -- high

ground. Things brightening up nicely across northern England and Wales

and in the west Midlands it will cheer up later this afternoon. This

is 3pm. The rain will head into Southern counties, East Anglia and

the south-east, heavy for a time and gusty winds so watch out. It will

not hang around, it will clear through come the evening time, and

tonight the best of the clear skies will be in the southern and eastern

areas. Frequent and increasingly wintry showers further north and

west, the snow getting to lower levels and settling on high ground,

icy night over Northern Ireland and Scotland, temperatures not far from

freezing wherever you are. First thing in the morning it will be a

chilly start, the best sunshine in the south and east but the showers

will develop widely, some rain, hail, sleet and snow. Most of the

snow across the hills in the north and west. Wherever you are it will

feel cold, temperatures held in single figures for the most part and

where the showers are they will fall several degrees. Want watch tomorrow

night and into Wednesday morning is this band of rain pushing into

northern England and southern Scotland, where you could see a

prolonged spell of stone which could have some impact, something to bear

in mind early on Wednesday. -- spell of snow. A band of persistent rain

in some places on Wednesday, cold despite some sunshine come in a few

places temperatures will stay in single figures. Low-pressure

responsible for the showers. As I hinted to retake, the reason for

optimism come the weekend, high-pressure beginning to build in.

What does that mean in terms of the weather? We will have seems like

this over the next few days, heavy, thundery showers around, but at the

end of the week increasing amounts of blue skies and sunshine. But as

the Windies fall light watch out for some frost as well. Rita.

John, thank you. That is all from the BBC News at One and