:00:12. > :00:14.We have two important stories for you - in the UK campaigning
:00:15. > :00:17.in the snap election ends today and the country prepares to vote.
:00:18. > :00:20.And in Washington, intelligence officials testify in the Senate
:00:21. > :00:24.refusing to say for now if Donald Trump interfered
:00:25. > :00:31.Theresa May says the question now is the same as it was at the beginning
:00:32. > :00:36.Who do you trust to actually have the strong and stable
:00:37. > :00:42.leadership that is going to deliver the best deal for Britain in Europe?
:00:43. > :00:46.than 80 rallies - he says Britain faces a clear
:00:47. > :00:52.Five more years of Tory cuts, longer waiting lists,
:00:53. > :00:54.underfunded schools in many parts of the country and
:00:55. > :01:02.Washington serves up the prelude to former FBI director
:01:03. > :01:10.At a Senate committee hearing - the director of national
:01:11. > :01:14.intelligence said he had never felt pressured by the president -
:01:15. > :01:23.but was he asked to intervene in the FBI inquiry.
:01:24. > :01:26.Hello, I am Katty Kay in Washington, Christian Fraser is in London.
:01:27. > :01:32.12 hours from now pollings stations will open in the UK.
:01:33. > :01:35.It's an election the ruling Conservative were expected to win
:01:36. > :01:46.But during the six week campaign the polls have narrowed.
:01:47. > :02:00.We're going to focus first on the front runners. Theresa May has her
:02:01. > :02:03.final event in Birmingham whilst Jeremy Corbyn has two events in
:02:04. > :02:06.London before the campaign closes at midnight.
:02:07. > :02:08.Here's our Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg.
:02:09. > :02:12.She called it to win it, but it's not her choice.
:02:13. > :02:22.A few hackles at 5:30am, following her trail like the missteps in the
:02:23. > :02:24.last few weeks. Jolly photo ops aren't
:02:25. > :02:26.quite her style, and there's not With security and tighter
:02:27. > :02:30.terror laws on her mind. At eight o'clock in Glasgow,
:02:31. > :02:32.Jeremy Corbyn enjoying With his long-held views
:02:33. > :02:39.on security, cautious about the idea Our Human Rights Act
:02:40. > :02:46.protects our rights. The way you deal with a threat
:02:47. > :02:50.to democracy is not by reducing democracy, it's by dealing
:02:51. > :02:53.with the threat. The day before the election, moving
:02:54. > :02:56.his Shadow Home Secretary aside. Diane Abbott isn't well
:02:57. > :03:03.and she's not campaigning. If that is unusual, much has been
:03:04. > :03:07.about this campaign. Theresa May was knocked on social
:03:08. > :03:11.care, a policy that might have caused alarm on many bowling greens,
:03:12. > :03:17.before returning to script. It's about who people trust
:03:18. > :03:19.to have the strong and stable leadership to get the best deal
:03:20. > :03:24.for Britain in Europe. And who has the will and, crucially,
:03:25. > :03:28.the plan to deliver an Brexit. Legions of Jeremy Corbyn fans
:03:29. > :03:32.want something else. Opponents say his sums don't stack
:03:33. > :03:36.up, but they love Labour's manifesto that promises more borrowing
:03:37. > :03:41.and a much bigger state. The first time it's been
:03:42. > :03:45.Jeremy Corbyn with full on socialism versus the Conservatives and it's
:03:46. > :03:50.giving people a great opportunity. Theresa May doesn't care
:03:51. > :03:54.about people like us. Vote Labour, for crying out loud,
:03:55. > :03:57.to help this country get out of the mess we are in,
:03:58. > :04:02.with this Tory government. The poor are suffering
:04:03. > :04:08.in this blinking country. Our manifesto offers something
:04:09. > :04:14.very, very different. They say well it's going
:04:15. > :04:16.to cost a lot of money. But we are very clear about this,
:04:17. > :04:21.we have fully costed it. 95% of the population
:04:22. > :04:27.will pay no more in tax, no more in National Insurance,
:04:28. > :04:31.no more in VAT. The two main campaigns
:04:32. > :04:36.look so different It's not an election
:04:37. > :04:40.where anyone can say politicians are all the same,
:04:41. > :04:43.they have different visions Labour would tax more and spend more
:04:44. > :04:51.on schools and hospitals. Under the Tories there
:04:52. > :04:54.would still be cuts to keep trying They have very different takes
:04:55. > :04:59.on the kind of country this is and what they want it to be,
:05:00. > :05:03.and very different leaders who are trying to persuade
:05:04. > :05:08.you to let them take us there. Campaigns are not a contest
:05:09. > :05:12.of who covers more miles. Mrs and Mr May in
:05:13. > :05:20.the Tory plane today. At the start of this journey she
:05:21. > :05:24.seemed unassailable, not any more. We've set out in our manifesto
:05:25. > :05:27.the challenges that we face as a country, and how
:05:28. > :05:30.we as government would deliver How we would ensure
:05:31. > :05:35.we were addressing those challenges. Isn't it the case, you didn't have
:05:36. > :05:38.to call this election, and you're asking people to trust
:05:39. > :05:41.you for five years after a campaign where the sense is you've said
:05:42. > :05:48.as little as possible. What I have said to the British
:05:49. > :05:51.people is to be open with them about the challenges
:05:52. > :05:53.this country faces. But also about the opportunities
:05:54. > :05:57.that we have in this country. I think that's absolutely
:05:58. > :06:02.the right thing to do. The core, not the quality
:06:03. > :06:14.of the campaign will see her home. My vote will be with Mrs May
:06:15. > :06:17.because of her experience. I compare them, one is a lot more
:06:18. > :06:24.qualified, in my opinion, for the job interview
:06:25. > :06:26.on offer tomorrow. I think she's a ruthless
:06:27. > :06:28.candidate who can get the country through Brexit,
:06:29. > :06:31.which is what we voted for. Elections aren't straightforward
:06:32. > :06:42.popularity contests. It's turnout tomorrow, not tonight,
:06:43. > :06:45.that really matters. Elections are decisions on just one
:06:46. > :06:48.day, a choice that changes Laura Kuenssberg,
:06:49. > :06:56.BBC News, Birmingham. Now just to remind you there are 650
:06:57. > :06:59.seats or constituencies The number required
:07:00. > :07:05.for an absolute majority is 326. In 2015 the Conservatives
:07:06. > :07:12.won 331 seats. Rob Watson has steered us
:07:13. > :07:15.through the campaign these past weeks, he is in Westminster
:07:16. > :07:28.for us tonight. Good evening. The final line in that
:07:29. > :07:34.report was that this is a decision that will affect our lifetimes. And
:07:35. > :07:38.this time around it is that profound because of Brexit and the direction
:07:39. > :07:44.the parties want to take us in. That is one strange thing about this
:07:45. > :07:48.rather strange election. That the stakes could not possibly be higher.
:07:49. > :07:55.After all whoever wins the election gets to decide the path in the world
:07:56. > :08:00.of the UK after being a member of the EU for more than 40 years. That
:08:01. > :08:04.affects the place in the world, security arrangements, diplomacy,
:08:05. > :08:07.economics, everything. But yet despite the stakes being so high it
:08:08. > :08:12.is difficult to imagine a campaign that feels less like it is they
:08:13. > :08:17.become to life. In part because of the tragedies of course of those two
:08:18. > :08:21.attacks but on those key issues, what is Britain going to look like
:08:22. > :08:26.after Brexit, what is going to happen to the economy, we have heard
:08:27. > :08:34.precious little. It is always about the economy, stupid. Why have they
:08:35. > :08:39.not been talking about that? I guess critics of Theresa May would say
:08:40. > :08:44.that has been a mistake within a party that she should have been more
:08:45. > :08:47.forceful in defending the Conservative government record. And
:08:48. > :08:51.its record previously with the coalition. She has not done that and
:08:52. > :08:57.I think if somehow she does not pull off the victory she expects, she can
:08:58. > :09:04.expect more grumbling. Jeremy Corbyn has focused impact on and offered an
:09:05. > :09:09.unashamedly socialist alternative. He has been on the far left fringes
:09:10. > :09:15.of UK politics for a long time and has come out with a 90 austerity
:09:16. > :09:18.message. Below many of his people think the media is hard on them
:09:19. > :09:26.there has not been much examination of this manifesto partly because the
:09:27. > :09:31.media concentrate on who they think is going to win which is Theresa
:09:32. > :09:35.May. Just to pick up on something about how this fundamentally will
:09:36. > :09:41.affect the path of the world for the UK, my understanding is that the
:09:42. > :09:43.path was decided in the Brexit referendum last June and whoever is
:09:44. > :09:50.elected Prime Minister it is still going to happen. So it is already
:09:51. > :09:55.determined, and how does this election make a fundamental
:09:56. > :10:01.difference to that? Absolutely, the big election was two years ago, or
:10:02. > :10:08.the big vote. Now it is a question of how do the politicians in this
:10:09. > :10:12.country make it work. And it is that bad but is uncertain, and the stakes
:10:13. > :10:18.could not possibly be higher. Clearly Brexit, yes the UK is going
:10:19. > :10:22.to be leaving the EU, but there are many different ways to do that. You
:10:23. > :10:26.could have that hard Brexit where the UK would seek to be the single
:10:27. > :10:30.market and Customs union or something which looks more like the
:10:31. > :10:36.UK staying inside the EU. So a big vote two years ago but in a the
:10:37. > :10:39.stuff that is now really important, other details. What will the UK do
:10:40. > :10:44.about immigration policy, about trade with the rest of the world.
:10:45. > :10:46.When it's somehow pivot away from the European Union and do more trade
:10:47. > :11:09.with China for example or India. Thank you very much. All week we've
:11:10. > :11:14.been looking ahead to the of former FBI director James Connolly. His
:11:15. > :11:19.full opening statement has been published a day ahead of that. He
:11:20. > :11:22.said during a phone call on the 30th of March President Trump asked him
:11:23. > :11:27.what could be done to lift the cloud of the Russia pro. He has also said
:11:28. > :11:31.Donald Trump told again during a dinner, I need loyalty. Laura Bicker
:11:32. > :11:46.joins me now. Let's go to Michael Flynn and that
:11:47. > :11:50.meeting in the Oval Office which has been much written about and whether
:11:51. > :11:56.or not James Comey wrote a memo straight afterwards saying there was
:11:57. > :12:01.pressure put on him by Donald Trump to drop the investigation into
:12:02. > :12:04.Michael Flynn. Who of course was a former national security adviser and
:12:05. > :12:09.had to be fired after his meetings with Russian ambassadors was
:12:10. > :12:15.disclosed. Let's read some of the text from a meeting. When he leaned
:12:16. > :12:20.over, he said that when it came to the study 14th meeting, he wanted to
:12:21. > :12:23.talk about Flynn. This is Donald Trump talking about Flynn. He said
:12:24. > :12:28.the president began by saying Clinton had not done anything wrong
:12:29. > :12:32.in speaking with the Russians but he had to let go because he misled the
:12:33. > :12:37.vice president. He said after a while, the president returned to the
:12:38. > :12:40.topic of Mike Flynn think is a good guy and has been through a lot. He
:12:41. > :12:45.repeated Michael Flynn had not done anything wrong but had misled the
:12:46. > :12:50.president. Then he said I hope you can see your way clear to letting
:12:51. > :12:59.this go. Letting the thing go. He is a good guy, I hope you can let this
:13:00. > :13:04.go. The issue seems to be weathered Donald Trump somehow obstructed
:13:05. > :13:09.justice and put pressure on James Comey to drop investigations and
:13:10. > :13:13.from reading the statement, is James Comey going to say yes there was
:13:14. > :13:18.obstruction of justice? I think he is going to fudge it a bit. In his
:13:19. > :13:21.memo he writes I understood the president to be requesting bubble
:13:22. > :13:24.drop in investigation of Michael Flynn in connection with false
:13:25. > :13:27.statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in
:13:28. > :13:31.December. I did not understand him to be talking about the broader
:13:32. > :13:37.investigation into Russia. Then he goes on to say he kept it close
:13:38. > :13:42.within his FBI team, he did not inform the Attorney General. This is
:13:43. > :13:46.a fine line for the former director James Comey to plough because if it
:13:47. > :13:51.is seen that he didn't know there was an obstruction of justice, and
:13:52. > :13:58.then he failed to disclose that, then he failed in his duty as FBI
:13:59. > :14:01.director. Some some ways what he's saying is it since President Trump
:14:02. > :14:09.was implying he should let Michael Flynn, this investigation into him
:14:10. > :14:15.go, not the broader investigation. Thank you very much. And we are
:14:16. > :14:19.going to hear that test testimony from James Comey tomorrow and it
:14:20. > :14:23.will be all but the question of whether President Trump obstructed
:14:24. > :14:30.justice by asking officials not to investigate links with his campaign
:14:31. > :14:38.to Russia. Today Senate officials refused to testify. Democrats were
:14:39. > :14:40.pressed the Director of National intelligence Dan Coates on a simple
:14:41. > :14:47.question, had the president asked him to intervene. As I responded to
:14:48. > :14:52.similar questions during my confirmation in a second hearing
:14:53. > :15:00.before the committee, I do not feel it is appropriate for me in the
:15:01. > :15:03.public session in which confidential conversations between the present
:15:04. > :15:09.myself, I do not believe it is appropriate for me to address that
:15:10. > :15:13.in a public session. The director of National intelligence Dan Coats.
:15:14. > :15:19.For more I spoke earlier with Republican Senator John Barrasso.
:15:20. > :15:25.The defence chiefs in their testimony this morning I saying two
:15:26. > :15:32.senators they do not want to play effectively whether President Trump
:15:33. > :15:35.suggested that they should get the FBI investigation into links with
:15:36. > :15:39.Russia dropped. Should they not be telling the American public that?
:15:40. > :15:42.The American public want to know, we're going to have the former FBI
:15:43. > :15:49.director James Comey testifying tomorrow. It is a bipartisan panel
:15:50. > :15:53.asking the questions, Republicans and Democrats alike want the answer
:15:54. > :15:56.is that the American people want as well. We want to make sure the
:15:57. > :16:00.country is safe and secure and strong and if we cannot get answers
:16:01. > :16:04.were not going to feel as safe and secure as we would like. Are you
:16:05. > :16:09.concerned by the press report that the president tried to influence
:16:10. > :16:13.some of his intelligence chiefs including director James Comey and
:16:14. > :16:15.put pressure on them to get investigations dropped? We're going
:16:16. > :16:19.to hear from James Comey tomorrow and what is important is the content
:16:20. > :16:24.of what he tells us as well as the context and the town. For more
:16:25. > :16:28.details are and what he tells us the president told him. That is what the
:16:29. > :16:31.people want to know and I think were not going to rest, certainly this
:16:32. > :16:37.bipartisan select committee is not going to rest until we get all the
:16:38. > :16:46.answers specifically related to Russia. Yup Republicans and
:16:47. > :16:49.Democrats alike who have no trust of Vladimir Putin, we know he is trying
:16:50. > :16:52.to undermine our democracy and not just in the US, we see it in
:16:53. > :16:55.elections in Germany, France and England are so you'd not be trusted
:16:56. > :16:58.and we need answers. You have been a staunch supporter of the present but
:16:59. > :17:03.when you look at what is coming out of the White House in the course of
:17:04. > :17:06.the last week, are you concerned about the way this president is
:17:07. > :17:12.managing the White House, managing relations with some of the closest
:17:13. > :17:15.American allies? There is a lot of work to be done in Congress and I
:17:16. > :17:21.think the tweeting detracts from what we're trying to do. In terms of
:17:22. > :17:24.jobs in the economy, overall national security, the types of
:17:25. > :17:27.things we're trying to do with infrastructure and health care. It
:17:28. > :17:33.is almost impossible for Congress to get any of those things done, no
:17:34. > :17:35.bills have been cast on tax or infrastructure jobs and partly
:17:36. > :17:39.because of the chaos coming out of the White House. You have in the
:17:40. > :17:42.past defended the president, would you urge the president now to change
:17:43. > :17:50.the way he is running the country and his relations with Congress and
:17:51. > :17:53.his allies? Well the president is most successful when focused on the
:17:54. > :17:58.things the American people are focused on, and that is jobs and the
:17:59. > :18:03.economy, the national security. Those are the things that are
:18:04. > :18:08.winning combinations that things that people but -- that people are
:18:09. > :18:12.caring about. As long as the focus is on that it is much better for
:18:13. > :18:18.everyone. You're heading onto Wyoming, how concerned are people in
:18:19. > :18:21.that state about the Russian investigation? People are focused on
:18:22. > :18:25.getting their own lives under control in terms of jobs, getting
:18:26. > :18:31.booed on the table, getting the kids off to school and having good jobs.
:18:32. > :18:35.Certainly the concerned with Russia is real, it is all around the
:18:36. > :18:39.country. We want to make sure our country is safe and strong, we worry
:18:40. > :18:44.about terrorism, we need to focus on those goals moving forward and want
:18:45. > :18:51.to make sure that we can get beyond the distraction is currently on the
:18:52. > :18:58.table. Thank you very much. A bizarre state of affairs spelt out
:18:59. > :19:03.by Senator McCain who said, I have the Washington report in front of
:19:04. > :19:12.me, how the president is supposed to have approached Dan Coates and asked
:19:13. > :19:15.him to help the FBI back. Yet there is Dan Coates in front of the
:19:16. > :19:20.highest committee in the Senate and he cannot say anything. Or does not
:19:21. > :19:23.want to. There was a lot of frustration in that committee
:19:24. > :19:26.hearing that these poor intelligence directors had not come to the Senate
:19:27. > :19:29.prepared with what they could answer and what they could not and what
:19:30. > :19:32.they were going to answer. One of them was after you have a legal
:19:33. > :19:37.reason for not answering the question of what the president asked
:19:38. > :19:41.you or did not and he said I do not think I do but I do not feel it is
:19:42. > :19:47.the right thing to do. Clearly they are frustrated and want answers. And
:19:48. > :19:50.you would hear that. Someone like our guest was a staunch supporter of
:19:51. > :19:57.Donald Trump saying this has to stop. He was asked if he felt
:19:58. > :20:01.pressure and he replied no. But he was not asked the question about
:20:02. > :20:04.whether he had been asked and that is a second thing. A separate thing,
:20:05. > :20:08.yes. A month
:20:09. > :20:09.ago President Trump fired the Director of the FBI -
:20:10. > :20:12.today he announced a replacement. The process took longer
:20:13. > :20:14.than the White House expected as a stream of candidates
:20:15. > :20:16.were interviewed and then either rejected or pulled
:20:17. > :20:18.themselves out of contention. Now Mr Trump has picked
:20:19. > :20:20.a career prosecutor, someone known in fact
:20:21. > :20:22.to James Comey. Wray, a man of impeccable
:20:23. > :20:42.credentials, to be the new Interesting timing. Perhaps he
:20:43. > :20:48.released this information ahead of the James Comey investigation. Many
:20:49. > :20:50.of you will not have heard about him.
:20:51. > :20:52.So what can we tell you about Christopher Wray?
:20:53. > :20:54.Well the Yale lawyer was President George W
:20:55. > :20:56.Bush's assistant attorney general from 2003 to 2005 -
:20:57. > :20:58.while there he worked under James Comey at the
:20:59. > :21:01.He ran the criminal division of the Justice Department,
:21:02. > :21:04.dealing with fraud scandals that plagued the corporate world.
:21:05. > :21:07.After his service he worked for a big private law firm,
:21:08. > :21:10.specialising in white collar investigations.
:21:11. > :21:12.Wray was also a lawyer for Chris Christie,
:21:13. > :21:14.the New Jersey Governor - and Trump ally -
:21:15. > :21:28.We will get to know him better. One thing that will bring up a lot on
:21:29. > :21:35.the programme is the popularity of President Trump. And it means that
:21:36. > :21:39.he can govern. But are his approval ratings on the wane? If we take an
:21:40. > :21:41.average from the polling, his popularity rating at the moment is
:21:42. > :21:45.39%. Not great numbers but here's some
:21:46. > :21:48.context that might surprise you - On Day 138 of his presidency -
:21:49. > :21:51.his figures are in fact better than the approval ratings
:21:52. > :21:54.Bill Clinton had at this same stage. 138 days into Clinton's
:21:55. > :21:57.adminstration just 37.8 percent of Americans approved of the job
:21:58. > :22:08.he was doing. That surprised me because Bill
:22:09. > :22:14.Clinton was a popular president. At stages through his presidency. What
:22:15. > :22:18.went wrong at the beginning? Bill Clinton left office with a 66%
:22:19. > :22:28.approval rating, the envy of most presidents. But at the beginning, it
:22:29. > :22:31.was actually pretty chaotic with personnel upheavals and the kind of
:22:32. > :22:35.things we're hearing bit about at the moment from the Donald Trump
:22:36. > :22:40.White House. That dragged his ratings down. Here's what he did
:22:41. > :22:47.about it, he brought in a grown-up, Leon Panetta, to be his chief of
:22:48. > :22:50.staff. He shook up the White House and instilled a lot of discipline
:22:51. > :22:53.and approval ratings began to go back up again.
:22:54. > :22:57.I just want to bring this back to where things stand here with some
:22:58. > :23:03.The poll of polls puts the Conservatives
:23:04. > :23:07.While Labour is five points behind on 37.2%.
:23:08. > :23:16.Tim Farron's Liberal Democrats are polling at 8.1%.
:23:17. > :23:24.The polls have been completely up and down these last few weeks. One
:23:25. > :23:29.poll put the Conservatives at one point above Labour and another as
:23:30. > :23:38.high as 12 points. Looking back at the polling on the popular vote in
:23:39. > :23:41.2015, the Conservatives with seven points ahead, so do you take other
:23:42. > :23:47.side of that, if they were six points ahead do they lose some of
:23:48. > :23:50.the majority, if conversely there over at April 12 points, do they
:23:51. > :23:54.start to pick up seats tomorrow. I do not think you would bet the house
:23:55. > :23:58.on it, it is up in the air. It is going to be fascinating what kind of
:23:59. > :24:02.results we get. No one I do not think really knows. And what matters
:24:03. > :24:06.most is how many seats the Conservative Party gets and how much
:24:07. > :24:10.chicks that are majority. These polling members may not entirely
:24:11. > :24:22.reflect that. Because vulture is of course divergent in various seats.
:24:23. > :24:29.-- vote share. There are of course other parties
:24:30. > :24:32.involved in the election. This is a parliament, 650 individual elections
:24:33. > :24:35.Ruby and nine parties all looking for a stake in Westminster. Here's
:24:36. > :24:39.what they had to say in the final push of campaigning. There are
:24:40. > :24:42.challenges ahead, the Brexit negotiations, we need to get them
:24:43. > :24:47.right. Brexit is the basis of everything. We need to secure our
:24:48. > :24:52.economy for the future, make sure we have more and better paid jobs. You
:24:53. > :24:55.have a choice, five more years of Tory cuts, longer waiting lists,
:24:56. > :25:01.underfunded schools in many parts of the country, and hope under the
:25:02. > :25:05.Labour Party. If you want to send a message to Theresa May that you are
:25:06. > :25:10.not to be taken for granted, the dementia tax is not to be given the
:25:11. > :25:15.all clear and cuts are not OK, the Liberal Democrats are the party to
:25:16. > :25:18.get behind. She has come across as weak and evasive so it is possible
:25:19. > :25:26.but Scotland could stop her getting a bigger majority. People are coming
:25:27. > :25:32.onto the idea that Theresa May will not give us the Brexit want. What we
:25:33. > :25:37.need to do is to have... There's no place for sexist remarks in
:25:38. > :25:42.political leadership. We have a job to do to lead the way and set the
:25:43. > :25:47.tone. We need a strong team of Plaid Cymru MPs to make sure that Wales is
:25:48. > :25:52.taken seriously and not the Lord in the way it has been since the
:25:53. > :25:56.referendum took place last June. We are at a fork in the road and if you
:25:57. > :26:00.do not want to waste money on Trident and look at ideas to make
:26:01. > :26:09.the country fit for the 21st century like a shorter working week, more
:26:10. > :26:10.investment in the NHS, then vote for the Green Party. Plenty more to