27/03/2017 Look East

Hello, and welcome to the Look East late news.

In the programme tonight, growing pressure on the Clacton MP

to call a by-election after he leaves Ukip

An inquest hears how this man struggled with mental illness,

ran out of medication and died of a heart attack.

And I'll be here with your local forecast and

First tonight, growing calls for another by-election in Clacton.

Over the weekend the local MP Douglas Carswell resigned from Ukip

This is a critical time for a party which has in the past commanded

Four years ago its tally of county councillors dramatically went

from 2 to 33 across Norfolk, suffolk and Essex.

In the last general election its share of the vote

But over the last few months the party's been arguing

about what its role should be now that we're leaving the EU,

and to lose its only MP does nothing to help.

When Douglas Carswell left the Conservatives in 2014 he thought

it right to call a by-election, so now

that he's moving again, should there be another one in Clacton?

Know, as he is not standing for another party, I don't see why.

He jumped ship to independent and says there's no need

for a by-election - well, I'm sorry, you've got to have one.

That's what many in the local party think

which is why, over the weekend, clamour for a by-election has grown.

Today it was taken up by the big guns.

We put considerable resources into getting

If he's decided he doesn't want to be Ukip any more, then he

should put himself in front of his constituents -

or his "bosses", as he calls them - to see if he's done the right thing.

We will now write to every house in Clacton and ask them

do you want a by-election or not, and if more than 20% say they do we

will then find out just how honourable Mr Carswell is.

But not everyone in the party is relishing

Douglas Carswell has a very strong political brand in Clacton.

I think if there was a by-election now, it

would be interesting and lively and you'll excuse me

from having put a lot of effort into the Stoke-on-Trent Central

by-election recently if I don't regard such a prospect with

It would be hard work and it would be a close 3-way race.

By law, Mr Carswell doesn't have to call a by-election.

He argues that this time things are different.

I'm not saying that I'm going to submit

myself to the authority, to the whip of a new party.

If I was to make that transition, then quite rightly

I would need the permission of the electorate.

But in a sense I'm saying I don't have a whip.

But was local elections getting underway all

Hopefully now this will spark the people of Clacton to wake up and

realise that Ukip are dead in the water.

They've always really been a protest movement, and now they have

no members of Parliament I think that just underlines the point.

They're splitting, they're subdividing and subdividing.

And who knows - it seems to be imploding, but

it might get some cohesion somewhere.

This isn't just happening in Clacton.

Last week its leader on Norfolk County Council resigned.

Its leader in Suffolk went a few months

ago, and most of Ukip's County Councillors in Essex aren't planning

Ukip has often surprised at elections and may do so

again, but this has been a weekend it will want to forget.

A short while ago I asked Andrew how much of a loss

Well, Ukip are saying that having just one MP in Parliament meant

that they never had much clout so this is no big loss.

But think back to how excited they were in 2014 when

Douglas Carswell was elected - I remember sitting next

to Nigel Farage in the Commons as he watched his new MP

Yes, they will still be the guard-dog of

Brexit, as Patrick O'Flynn was calling them tonight, and Ukip will

still be sought after for its views on how Brexit is going.

And yes, whenever it rowed with Douglas Carswell that generated

But remember, this is the party that once wanted to have

40 MPs in Parliament - tonight it's got none.

And, as you laid out in your report, Andrew, it has got more than

its fair share of problems at the moment, hasn't it?

Yes, I mean, some of that I think is down to a lack

You always get personality clashes in politics,

particularly at a local level, but there's no-one around

at the moment to bang heads together and to nip it in the bud.

But the other reason behind all this is that Ukip is

looking for some sort of identity now that we're leaving the EU,

Can it come up with a new set of distinctive policies, can it be more

than just a party of Brexit, can it find something that makes it

These local elections will show us what voters think.

For Ukip the next few months are critical.

An inquest has heard how a patient with schizophrenia ran out

of medication while in the care of a local mental health trust.

42-year-old Neil Jewell from Norwich died from a heart attack,

at a psychiatric intensive care unit at Ipswich

This from our chief reporter Kim Riley.

The inquest jury held heard a detailed statement from

Christine Welfare about her undomesticated and childlike younger

brother Neil, and his struggles with mental illness.

She told how, in early January 2014, he became frantic and agitated.

It turned out he'd run out of his medication, the

anti-psychotic drug Clozapine, and not been

Despite attempts by staff at the trice trust to reintroduce

the drug to his system, at a residential home in Norfolk, the

jury heard that he'd become an reachable and tormented.

He trashed his room, he tried to claw his way

up the wall, there were grazes on his knuckles

wall, bruises to his forehead where he'd head-butted the door.

His sister said she'd been so distressed

to see him in that state she'd had to leave.

He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and, in an

ambulance, taken to the Southgate ward at Bury St Edmunds.

The jury heard he'd been handcuffed jury that

journey, belts restraining his legs and arms.

Later that day, he was transferred again to a psychiatric

intensive care unit at Ipswich Hospital.

He was held in seclusion in an observation ward there.

But after a cardiac arrest he never regained consciousness.

With his sister stroking his head, he died on January the 17th, 2014.

Well, his sister stressed his inability to

cope with life and his need for intensive one-to-one

nursing at the end and throughout his treatment.

The inquest is expected to last four weeks.

Next tonight, the remarkable story of Deryn Blackwell.

As a young child he was told he had a disease that only affects

five people in the world and there was nothing

His mother, desperate to relieve her son's pain,

She believes it was that decision that led to his recovery.

This was Deryn Blackwell from Watton in 2013 -

diagnosed with leukaemia and a rare cell cancer,

admitted to an end of life hospice, he even planned his own funeral.

Being so close to death, it calms people.

After chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants he

So his mother, Callie, turned to something in secret -

His condition improved and his sores healed.

She believes it helped, others aren't so sure.

Whatever I did with the cannabis, it boosted his immune system and it

triggered his bone marrow into working.

That's what I firmly believe after what I saw with my own eyes.

The story is inspiring, but for all these promising stories that

are out there there are plenty where it didn't necessarily work or didn't

Possession can mean five years in prison.

The Conservative Government argues it

There was nothing else that conventional medicine

could give us, and at the point of administering it to him I was really

at the point of, well, what have I got to lose?

It was palliative, he was dying anyway.

There was nothing worse that I could do to him that

I am openly admitting that, three years

ago, that I administered a class B illegal drug.

Now Deryn's recovered his mother has written a book.

She has no regrets about giving her son cannabis oil,

That's all from me - coming up now, the weather with Julie.

But, from the rest of the late team, goodnight.

Denied is going to be dry, with areas of mist and fog and some clear

skies at times. Under those clear skies we could have temperatures as

low as two or three and with light winds that means patchy frost in

places. Tomorrow the mist and fog should clear more readily than today

and we should have dry weather for a time with some sunshine but then

showers coming from the south-west. Some of those could be heavy all

even thundery. In the best of any sunshine we could be up to about 20

Celsius. And we finished the day with the chance of showers just

about everywhere but fine weather as well. We keep the risk of thunder.

On Wednesday a lot of cloud in the morning and patchy rain as well. On

the whole window looks dry, a lot of cloud and temperatures not quite as

high as the previous day. Towards the end of the week this system

influencing the weather, the cold front moving through Friday. On

Thursday it will be fine and dry with pleasant spells of warm

sunshine, temperatures possibly higher than these at 20 or even 21.

On Friday that cold front probably producing rain in the morning,

eventually clearing giving way to sunshine and showers, with

temperatures not quite as high. In a moment you'll have the National

forecast but this is the outlook for next weekend. Sunny spells and heavy

showers on Saturday showery on Saturday, dry and

brighter on Sunday and if we go back to the temperatures in the next

couple days, you see those highs on Thursday. He is John Hammond with

the national this cyclone Debbie crashes onto the

Queensland coast with violent winds and flooding rains, that will head

southwards in the next few days in the direction of Brisbane. We will

keep an eye on Debbie. Meanwhile back home, much more tranquil. This

beautiful sunset taken from Stevenage and Hertfordshire earlier

this evening. Clear skies for some though not for all of us. Quite a

lot of low cloud across eastern areas drifting a little farther west

as we go through the night. Areas of fog around, so watch out for those.

Where the skies remain clear, it will be cold. It already is, and in

some areas temperatures