19/04/2017 BBC News at Ten

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MP's vote for the snap general election to take place on June 8th.

The vote is passed overwhelmingly, though some MPs and the SNP abstain.

The party leaders waste no time in getting

It's a choice between strong and stable leadership

under the Conservatives, or weak and unstable coalition

Are we going to be a country that works only to make

This election is going to be fought on the streets of this country.

The Prime Minister says she won't take part in any TV

debates and the former Chancellor George Osborne takes

Also tonight. The mystery of the missing warships.

President Trump said he'd sent an armada

Prince Harry says he's amazed at the response to his comments

about his difficulty in coping with his mother's death.

And the volcanic eruptions that can be predicted

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News.

Sam Warburton is picked to lead his pack of Lions again.

He'll captain the squad on their tour of New Zealand

and their Tests against the mighty All Blacks.

So it's official, the country will go to the polls in seven weeks'

time after MPs voted overwhelmingly to approve it this afternoon.

A handful of others and all the SNP MPs abstained.

The Prime Minister says victory in a vote on June 8th

would give her a stronger hand in her Brexit negotiations with EU

leaders and stability after Britain leaves.

The Labour leader has described the coming election as a chance

for the British people to change direction.

Here's our political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

Day one of the national argument that we'll decide who is in charge.

APPLAUSE Event one for Theresa May. She went

straight on the road. It's great to be here in Bolton, fresh from the

House of Commons and winning a vote in the House of Commons which has

approved my decision to hold a general election on the 8th of June.

The placards are ready. The cameras are poised. Those cheers already

ringing out. Not technically underway but this campaign is coming

soon to a place near you. But while the Prime Minister had the power of

surprise, questions about her motivation chase her through the

day. Having gone back on her promise not to call a vote, can she be

trusted? I trust that the British public, I'm asking them to put their

trust in me and if they do that, if they give me a mandate for these

negotiations, for the plan for Brexit that the government has come

in a plan for a stronger Britain beyond Brexit that we have, then I

think that will strengthen our hand. Order, questions to the Prime

Minister. Labour says she simply can't be believed. On both sides,

Prime Minister's Questions was a glimpse of the weeks to come. Over

the last seven years, the Tories have broken every promise on living

standards, the deficit, debt, the NHS and school funding. Why should

anyone believe a word they say over the next seven weeks? We will be out

there fighting for every vote whereas the right honourable

gentleman opposite would bankrupt our economy, we can our defences and

is simply not fit to lead. None of the leaders have time to waste, with

Brexit the backdrop for this election, the Lib Dems see their

resistance to the Prime Minister's plans of their selling point. Ran to

the other side, great stuff, hello. In leafy parts, they hope that sells

like here in Richmond outside London. There's an opportunity for

the British people to choose and change the direction of our country,

to reject Brexit voters day in the single market and however you voted

last June, devote to have a beaded, strong opposition in this country

that we desperately need for the good of democracy. Only just over a

dozen MPs tried to stop it happening. The opposition could have

blocked Theresa May's desire to hold the election three years early. The

ayes to the right, 522. But not a chance. The noes to the left, 13.

Summit is now officially on. The realities of Brexit tipped the

timing of this election but Theresa May was also tempted by the draw of

the polls and her desire to get things done at home. The challenge

now for the opposition parties is to make the arguments on their terms.

He is no stranger to this. Jeremy Corbyn had two successful rounds of

campaigning to win his party's leadership. But he is already on the

road in marginal Croydon, facing a much bigger task this time around.

Are we going to be a country that works only to make the richest even

richer? I know which side I'm on. You know which side you're on. This

election is going to be fought on the street of this country, up and

down, in town halls, in streets, on beaches, an seafront. And look who

dropped into Westminster! Is it realistic for the SNP to defy

gravity and keep their record-breaking number of MPs? The

Tories already claim with echoes of 2015, they would be included with

Labour. The SNP in this election will, as we always do, stand up for

Scotland. A vote for the SNP is a vote to protect Scotland's

interests. If the Parliamentary arithmetic lent itself to the SNP

being part of a Progressive alliance that would keep the Tories out of

government, then the SNP would seek to be part of that, as we said in

2015. You have just opened the door to a coalition. Do you believe,

you've suggested he might work with the other parties? I don't think

that if the territory we will be in in this election and I don't think

you will find anyone in any part of UK who thinks it is. I was simply

stating a fact as I did in 2015 that I don't want to see a Tory

government. Feeling confident, Prime Minister? Can you unite the country?

She may be feeling the first but achieving the second will be hard to

do. Much stands in Theresa May's way of driving back in, still Prime

Minister, in 50 days. Laura Kuenssberg, BBC News, Westminster.

So with the official starting gun fired for the election,

attention turns to the battleground seats with slim majorities,

where the parties will be out and about over the next 50 days

One of those key constituencies is Bolton North East,

currently held by Labour with a majority of just

The Prime Minister wasted no time in going there tonight.

Our political correspondent Vicki Young was with her.

The Conservatives are heading into Labour territory, with ambitious

plans to grab seats like Bolton North East that have

been beyond their reach for 20 years.

Labour areas which voted for Brexit could

And Theresa May thinks she can win them over.

It's a choice between strong and stable leadership

under the Conservatives, or weak and unstable

coalition of chaos led by Jeremy Corbyn.

And as the voters of Bolton digest news of the snap

election, some have already made up their minds.

But now, Theresa May has got my vote.

Not just because she's a woman but she is strong and I think

She's not messing around with all this

bickering in Parliament and, you know, she's trying to do a good

job of a bad situation that she's been left in.

I voted Conservatives last year, last time.

I won't be voting at all this year because I've no

Labour hope to succeed by attacking the

government's record on the NHS and school funding, things they hope

You know, the lower, well, under the middle-class.

Labour, but then obviously, it depends on issues on health care and

Those are my main two priority things.

Bolton is just the kind of place where the Tories think

they can make real progress in this election.

Theresa May will be appealing to Ukip and Labour voters

who backed Brexit in the referendum, telling them that she is now

the person to deliver on that promise to leave the European Union.

And as voters focus on choosing their next

Prime Minister, some questioned the Labour leader's credibility.

I usually vote Ukip but I will vote Conservative.

that idiot, Jeremy Corbyn, I will go for Theresa May because like she

says, he can only lead a political demonstration but he can't lead his

I've always been Labour and stuff like that but I can't, I just can't.

It just seems that he doesn't know what he's doing.

This battle has just begun, but today, Theresa May signalled she

is ready to challenge the Labour Party on their own turf.

The Prime Minister says she won't take part in any

Theresa May insists campaigning should be about getting "out

Labour has accused her of running scared, and ITV has

announced it intends to host a leaders' debate nonetheless.

Our home editor Mark Easton has more.

Election debate. Since the first UK TV debates in 2010, they've proved a

popular addition to election campaigns, particularly with young

voters. I agree with Nick and I think he agrees with me about the

new House of Commons. A boyish Nick Clegg stole the show in the

first-ever, a reminder that under the TV lights, poll ratings and

political experience can melt away. The Prime Minister revealed her

views about TV debates on BBC radio this morning. We won't be doing the

television debates... So you won't faze Jeremy Corbyn on any stage at

any time? I will face him later in the House of Commons. And when she

did come his attack was swift and predictable. She says it is about

leadership. Yet is refusing to defend her record in television

debates. Why will she not debate those issues publicly now? What she

scared of? Can the Prime Minister to other people why she's running

scared of a televised with Nicola Sturgeon? If you are a Prime

Minister and head in the polls, then a TV debate probably looks like all

risk and no gain. But there is a risk in staying know for Theresa

May. -- in saying no. The danger this becomes a running story in the

election campaign. And that wrist just got greater with ITV announcing

they will hold a debate whether to May takes part or not and the BBC

saying no party leader should stop a programme that is in the public

interest. The candidates need no introduction. Televised debates have

become part of America's electoral process. The first-ever in 1960s or

the favourite, Richard Nixon, looking shifty and sweaty compared

to the cool John Kennedy. Some say it cost him the election. During

last year's campaign, many thought Hillary Clinton beats Donald Trump

in the debates. Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.

Because you'd be in jail. But then maybe the TV studio is now being

usurped by the power of social media. A Tory chicken stalked Tony

Blair in 1997 when he was accused of ducking Tadic -- TV debate. Labour

supporting took busy David Cameron as he tried to negotiate terms for

the debate in 2010. Today, the Daily Mail reported that in has come out

of retirement. Mark Easton, BBC News.

The former Chancellor, George Osborne, has announced he's

standing down as an MP to concentrate on his

new job as editor of the London Evening Standard.

He'd faced intense criticism after taking on the newspaper job

alongside several other jobs plus his role in Parliament,

as our deputy political editor John Pienaar reports.

From political big beast to big City editor, and the greenest

The new boss in Fleet Street chooses to see his future as moving

George Osborne told me today he will use his new role to fight

for his liberal conservative views against any harsher

My job as editor of the Evening Standard is to speak for London,

speak for my readers, speak for this country

Our country's got some big decisions to make now about the kind

And those values of openness, tolerance, diversity and enterprise,

they are the values that I hold dear.

They are the ones I fought for in government as Chancellor,

fought for in Parliament as the MP for Tatton and now I'm

going to fight for them in that editor's chair at the Evening

Strategist in a hard hat, visionary in hi-vis,

out to build Tory support in areas off-limits since Margaret Thatcher.

Close to David Cameron, they rose and fell together over Brexit.

Theresa May, not he, moved from the wings to centre stage.

Can being an editor ever compensate for never being Prime Minister?

The exciting thing is not how you engage in the public debate

but whether you engage in the public debate.

No, come on, let's be realistic, you wished to be Prime Minister

Do you know, I count myself as nothing other

than incredibly fortunate, first of all, to be an MP,

represent the great Cheshire seat I did and also to be Chancellor

of the Exchequer for six years, and I'm very proud to have been part

of the team that turned around the fortunes, first of all of my

Perspective or a brave front on a broken dream?

The Coalition government hung together as George Osborne planned,

and in the end, just as he planned, the Lib Dems were hung

I don't think he himself would ever claim that he had great sort

of popular public appeal in the country at large,

but he loved the kind of game of politics

Now looking back, he insists he is proud.

Bad days, his so-called omnishambles Budget,

with its tax on hot food, glossed over.

Would it be losing Brexit or taxing pasties?

You know, when you do Budgets, and I did eight Budgets, you know,

In the end, you have to, I think, be judged on whether you are true

How do you want history to remember you, George Osborne?

Someone who left Britain in a better shape than I found it.

Let's get more on our main story then with our political

The party leaders wasting no time in getting their message across

It certainly is. It already feels like it's fully up and running,

doesn't it? You know, today and yesterday Theresa May had the power

of surprise on her side. She had first mover advantage. Of course,

it's quite easy to look like you're somehow ahead of the game if you're

the one who has set the rules. I think we've seen from her a couple

of things that are very clear. She is going to go very clearly after

Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. He is aside to her comparatively untested.

Right now, very much the underdog. It's also clear, from the

Conservatives, that they are going to try to accuse Labour and the SNP

of somehow looking at some kind of dodgy collaboration, some kind of

dodgy coalition even though it has explicitly already been ruled out by

both of those parties. Tomorrow, it's very much over to Jeremy

Corbyn. He is going to make his first big speech of this election

campaign. It's his first big chance to try to say that he's going to set

his own rules in this campaign. I understand that instead of saying

he's going to somehow be criticised and allow people to push him around.

He will say in fact that he will loudly and proudly set his own

rules. He's quite happy to break the rules that are set by the

establishment and he will accuse the powerful of taking the result of

this election for granted. Taking it as a foregone conclusion that Labour

will be way behind. Now, of course, let's be clear, there are very few

people in Jeremy Corbyn's own party, here in Westminster, who think that

is in anyway how he will capture the keys to the castle. Jeremy Corbyn

won the Labour leadership in the first place by defying convention

and what is a very different race, it appears that is the strategy he

will take on again. Jeremy Corbyn will be Jeremy Corbyn. He will be

prowledly defying convention because he believes that's his best chance.

Sglit Laura Kuenssberg, at Westminster, thank you.

There's plenty more about the general election on our website,

including an 'all you need to know' guide.

President Trump's announcement, two weeks ago, that he had

despatched an "armada" towards the Korean Peninsula

was a show of force amid rising tensions

So why are the warships far away off the coast of Australia, taking part

The sight of a US Vice-President on board a nuclear powered aircraft

carrier is a very rare event, even more so when it's

Was this an elaborate piece of theatre or a sign America

is really preparing for action against North Korea?

We will defeat any attack and meet any use of conventional or nuclear

weapons with an overwhelming and effective American response.

The United States of America will always seek peace,

but under President Trump the shield stands guard and the

If President Trump is planning some sort of military action

against North Korea, there is no sign of it here.

This is the USS Ronald Reagan, the flagship of the 7th Fleet,

but it won't be ready to leave this port in Japan for at

Meantime, the other carrier battlegroup President Trump said

he's sending to the Korean peninsula has been seen sailing

The Carl Vinson saga began on the 8th April when the US

Pacific Fleet Commander ordered the aircraft carrier to leave

Singapore and sail north to waters near Korea.

Three days later, President Trump confirmed

he was sending an a armada, "very powerful", he said.

But instead for a whole week, the Carl Vinson and its escorts

sailed in the opposite direction, into the Indian Ocean.

The US Navy now says the carrier battlegroup

Back on board the Ronald Reagan, Vice-President Pence

hinted its departure may also now be accelerated.

God speed on the USS Reagan's imminent deployment.

Figuring out what the Trump administration is planning

for North Korea isn't easy, perhaps deliberately so.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC News, at the Yokosuka

Thousands of commuters to and from London have been facing

major disruption this evening after a fire forced

Network Rail said it damaged signalling equipment and temporarily

Engineers have warned that full timetables are unlikely to resume

Police have named a man they're searching for in connection

with an acid attack at an East London nightclub

on Monday, in which 20 people were injured.

Arthur Collins, who's 25 and from Hertfordshire,

is the boyfriend of a reality TV star, Ferne McCann.

Officers found firearms and cannabis plants when they searched

Prince Harry says he's been amazed by the response to his comments

about his difficulty in dealing with his mother's death.

His brother, Prince William, has also opened up about coping

with Diana's death, saying the shock of losing her is still

Our Royal correspondent Peter Hunt's report contains flash

Harry and his little helper, Melissa, getting the London Marathon

It's a race which this year has a special focus

on a princely passion - mental health.

Prince Harry has attracted widespread praise this week

for his honesty when he spoke of the anguish and the anxiety

he suffered for years after his mother's death.

It was only right to share my experiences and to help,

and really, sort of, reduce

To make it easier for them to talk about their own experiences.

Look, I mean, I think when you've heard so many stories,

from so many other people, and if you can relate to that,

then it's only right that you talk about your own experiences.

But all the experts you've met will have told you that one

of the key issues is funding and that there isn't enough

That's not for - as you probably know -

Our mission is to remove the stigma of mental health so that we can

provide a platform for people to be able to discuss it.

But the risk is you could be encouraging people to seek

No, and that's something that we've been completely aware

of over the last year, but the fact and the reality

is that, as I said, the appetite is there.

Once the appetite is there, things will change.

It's not my position and it's not our position

So we'll do everything that we can to encourage the conversation,

remove the stigma, so that everything else then can take place.

Opening up about the past is a brotherly trait.

In a BBC documentary, Prince William has provided

an insight into the trauma of his bereavement.

The shock is the biggest thing and I still feel,

you know, 20 years later, about my mother, I still

People go - shock, that can't last that long, but it does.

You never get over it, it's such an unbelievably big moment

in your life that it never leaves you, you just learn to deal with it.

An upbeat Harry believes their campaign is at a tipping point.

The UK, he hopes, will lead the way and the world by removing the taboo

Three of the front-runners in France's presidential election

are speaking at their final campaign rallies tonight with

the centre-left candidate, Emmanuel Macron, just ahead

His main rivals include Francois Fillon - the right-wing

former Prime Minister - as well as the far-left candidate,

Jean-Luc Melenchon, who's enjoying a late surge in support.

But with the first round of voting this Sunday, all three

face their sternest challenge from far-right National Front

Her pledge is to hold an EU referendum and

slash immigration have attracted widespread support.

It's a eurosceptic theme that appeals to a large

swathe of the electorate who see their chance to change

Our special correspondent Allan Little's report

France has two faces - the proud, independent nation,

its imperial past still visible, and the France that has

led the drive to ever closer European unity.

Two rival ideas of what France should be.

France would love to see a French Europe.

You know, that was the plan, in a way, in the 50s and the 60s.

It's a kind of Bonapartist vision for Europe.

There's an ambiguity, contradiction in French politics

and in French minds about one's love for one's country and

You know, it's a contradiction, but it's what makes us.

That contradiction has never been sharper.

Marine Le Pen has brought French nationalism in from the cold.

She is slowly shedding her party's association with the shaming memory

of France's wartime collaboration with Nazi Germany, she has allied it

Unlike in Britain, that euroscepticism

This group hold different political views - some left, some right -

but they all reject what they see as a rigid, pro-European orthodoxy.

France has a long history which has always fought out

for its independence and its ability to rule itself by its own

I cannot understand obstinate will that some people,

especially in the older generations now, they seem to have to surrender

this independence and this sovereignty to unelected bodies.

Our generation didn't know the war, so we are not as afraid as they were

The framework for politics, the framework for democracy,

We're in a Europe right now where there is rising insecurity.

There is no growth, there is high unemployment.

We have to get rid of that EU which is doing harm to the people.

This revolt has been brewing for years.

A generation ago, the French nearly derailed the European train.

In a referendum then, they voted to accept

A tiny majority for so profound a change.

Post-war Europe's founding statesman was a Frenchman.

Robert Schuman's vision has guided French thinking for 70 years,

but that other France, the France that wants

a return to national sovereignty and clear borders,

is getting stronger in its challenge to his legacy.

In the end, every generation has to hand its dreams and hopes down

to the care of posterity and it's up to those who come afterwards

to decide whether to nurture or amend or discard

But France has always been, even in their day, in two minds

about how far it wants to be absorbed into a broader European

identity and that's at the heart of this election campaign.

Allan Little, BBC News, in eastern France.

Rugby, and Sam Warburton, of Wales, has been chosen to captain

the British and Irish Lions for this summer's tour of New Zealand.

He's become only the second player to captain the side

Head coach, Warren Gatland, said there'd been some

"pretty lively debates" over his 41-man squad.

The England skipper, Dylan Hartley, was among those who missed out.

You might remember a few weeks ago we brought you the story of the BBC

camera crew caught up in an explosion on Mount Etna.

Well, now we can bring you the story that they were there to film.

While such explosions are difficult to predict,

researchers have devised a new method of detecting

when volcanoes will erupt using satellite technology.

Our science correspondent, Rebecca Morelle, reports.

It's one of the most active volcanoes in the world and last

month we experienced Mount Etna's devastating power first-hand.

We'd gone to see a lava flow, but the boiling hot rocks mixed

with icy melt water underneath, the pressure built up, causing this.

This sort of explosion is rare and hard to predict.

By contrast, though, the eruption from the crater that

That's because Etna's monitored 24/7 by scientists

Mount Etna is one of the most thoroughly monitored

volcanoes on earth but, obviously, there are many

other volcanoes and many dangerous volcanoes,

especially in poorer countries where monitoring is much

more rudimentary or, in many places, completely absent.

But now a groundbreaking project will change that.

Using our satellites, with radars on board,

we can actually see magma moving beneath the earth's surface.

At Leeds University, scientists are about to start

using satellites to monitor every volcano on earth to provide

So for people that are living on volcanoes that really aren't

monitored this could have a huge impact, of course.

If a volcano becomes restless and through this mechanism

we are able to provide warning to these people, this

This will be a worldwide volcano watch, and this is how it works.

Before a volcano erupts, magma begins to rise

from deep beneath the earth, causing the ground to swell.

It's only auto tiny movement, hardly noticeable, but it can be

Satellites can measure these changes, down to even a few

millimetres, and if anything's detected, it's a sign

that the volcano might be about to explode.

Our experience on Etna showed the danger that volcanoes can pose.

Forecasting major eruptions there and elsewhere

By the end of this year, scientists should have all 1,500

of the world's volcanoes under their watch.

Newsnight is coming up on BBC Two, here's Emily Maitlis.

Tonight we talk to Ruth Davidson and Nick Clegg, here in the studio,

and we ask whether party loyalty or Brexit will dictate how

Here, on BBC One, it's time for the news where you are.