17/10/2016 BBC News

Former Ukip leadership contender

Steven Woolfe quits the party - saying it's in a "death spiral".

I can no longer be part of Ukip while it is like this. There is a

spiral going on that is bringing it down.

The RAF helps Iraqi and Kurdish troops trying to drive so-called

Islamic State from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

We're now at a distance of about 300 metres from the nearest IS.

positions, but this is really just the first stage of what is expected

Missing toddler Ben Needham - police say he was probably killed

in an accident on the Greek island of Kos 25 years ago.

Also in the next hour, a victory parade for

Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

Thousands of people line the streets of Manchester,

celebrating the most successful away Games in decades.

I'm so shocked by all the people that have come out today

and supported us but it's fantastic, so thank you.

Good evening and welcome to BBC News.

One of the main candidates for the job of UKIP leader has told

MEP Steven Woolfe - recently hospitalised

after a confrontation with a fellow Ukip MEP - says the party

The party has been beset by controversy and infighting ever

since the vote to leave the European Union in June.

This was Steven Woolfe ten days ago, in hospital after an altercation

He says he ended up here after a meeting in the European

He asked a colleague to step outside to talk man-to-man,

but he told me he never meant for it to get physical.

He rushed at me, a blow to my face forced me back through the door.

It was a blow that impacted me in the face, as medical

I was pushed back into the room and hit my back head

against the back of one of the walls that was there.

Contrary to this account, the other MEP involved, Mike Hookem,

has consistently denied assaulting Mr Woolfe,

saying he didn't punch, push or hit him.

He says he was defending himself. Mr Woolfe later collapsed.

I was unconscious for some time, and there was partial paralysis down

They were incredibly concerned about me.

You were in hospital for three to four days.

It's been a horror story. It's been quite emotional.

First and foremost, when your family have no idea what's happening

to you and they see a picture like that, you get

Prior to this incident, you were the first person to say

you wanted to be Ukip's next leader, to declare your ambitions.

I will be withdrawing my application to become leader of Ukip.

I'm resigning from the party with immediate effect, which fills

Mr Woolfe said bitter infighting and opposing factions

There is something rotten at the heart of Ukip.

I think they have a spiral, some suggested it was a death

I think unless someone very quickly wrestles with the issues they've

got, we will see the loss of something I think

Yes, the influence that they have and the goodwill of the British

Emotionally, I think intellectually, it's been an incredible challenge.

I had so much hope, I had so much expectation and inspiration

Mr Woolfe will now be an independent MEP, while the party he's left

behind seeks a new leader and a way to overcome its inner turmoil.

We have been hearing from a lot of numbers of Ukip including its

chairman who said that he was disappointed with the decision but

disagreed with the view that the party is in a death spiral.

There are clearly people within our party who has strong views as to how

the party should move forward. What Stephen said was that the party was

ungovernable without Nigel as its leader. Well, Nigel is our leader

right now. And we are grateful for having him in place. Once the new

leader is in place, I am positive that they will unify the party

behind them, whoever they turn out to be. In 2017, Ukip will saved to

the British public, we are here, ready for business and this is what

we stand for. Joining me now from our Westminster

studio is Raheem Kassam, a former advisor to Nigel Farage

and has announced he will stand You must be delighted that your main

contender, the strongest contender for the leadership, is no longer in

the race. I am certainly not delighted. I am a personal friend of

Steven Woolfe and I regard him as a personal friend. We have exchanged

text messages tonight and I have expressed my deepest sympathies for

him and the position he has faced within the party. I think there can

be no doubt that he has been on the receiving end of some bad behaviour

from people inside the party and I extend an invitation to him that if

I win at the next election, he should come back and be our

migration spokesman. He has been a great asset and I am devastated that

he has gone. Do you think it is that particular fight, the clash of

personalities, that this stems from? He is not saying that. He is saying

that the party is in a death spiral. That is why he is quitting. I think

we are at half-time in a football match. We are 3-0 behind and there

is a lot of work to be done. We're not in a death spiral but it is

certainly not good at the moment. People need to come up with positive

solutions for the party and for the country. That is what the UK

Independence Party is supposed to be about. It is not supposed to be

about infighting or leadership candidates making background

briefing to journalists. I urge everybody at the next leadership

election, even those not in the election, to cut it out right now

and do what is best for this country. 52% of people voted for

Brexit and we know that only with a strong Ukip opposition will it

happen. It is really interesting to hear you say all of that, because we

have been hearing from a number of people tonight, including the

party's chairman, who seem to be in denial that there are problems. In

fact, one described this as a great day for Ukip. You are being honest

tonight, clearly, and admitting that there are problems that need to be

sorted. In the context of being Nigel Farage's former adviser, do

you think it was a mistake for him to step down so soon after Brexit?

Yes, actually I do. I think it was a mistake for him to step down after

the general election last year and I think it was a mistake for him to

step down this time also. But he has committed his life, a lot of his

adult life to delivering the Brexit referendum, as you know. He has had

so much in terms of stick from the opposition, so much from the media,

that. However, we have to move on that. However, we have to move on

and he has taken a decision. I have spoken to him today and I have said,

listen, if I take over of Ukip leader, I will make you the honorary

president of Ukip and I think you deserve that. The party needs his

vision and influence and experience, vision and influence and experience,

most of all. I think that is what we are forgetting. To the public, Ukip

has been Nigel Farage and he has been Ukip. There is no point

ignoring that and sweeping him away. When I announced my candidacy, it

was basically to continue his legacy in the party. The people who want to

cut him out of Ukip, they basically want to turn Ukip into something it

is not. You have not got much time left to get this sorted. We know

that Theresa May has plans to start that Theresa May has plans to start

the Brexit procedure and your job as Ukip, you have said it yourself, is

not to come on the BBC and talk about infighting and finding a

leader or direction, your job is to make sure that Theresa May does her

job. And we should always be sceptical of government, especially

a government led by a Remain the declared campaigner as we went into

the European Union referendum. So I do not trust Theresa May to deliver

an Brexit even though there is a good team trying to deliver within

the Conservative Party. But we cannot be a 1-party state. I cannot

be in a country where by the Labour Party is in turmoil, Ukip is in

turmoil and the Conservative Party turmoil and the Conservative Party

get a free ride. It is not British to have no opposition and so Ukip

must pull itself up by the bootstraps and deliver

opposition. I for one will be opposition. I for one will be

delighted if we can get behind a leader, all of us, and really

deliver on what people want. And you have to find one first, as well.

There will be coverage on the latest developments. In tomorrow's papers.

Plus many others. We're looking at the front

pages at 10:40pm this our guests joining me

tonight at Rosamund Urwin, Columnist at the London Evening

Standard and Jim Waterson, British fighter jets have

been in action today, supporting Iraqi forces in what's

being described as the most decisive battle yet

against so-called Islamic State. 30,000 Iraqi troops and Kurdish

fighters are taking part in the offensive on the northern

city of Mosul, the last remaining stronghold

of the extremist group. Our correspondent, Orla Guerin

joined Kurdish fighters Here's her report

from the front-line. At first light, the advance

on so-called Islamic State. Zero hour had finally come,

bringing an offensive that could decide the fate

of the extremists and, We joined Peshmerga fighters

from the autonomous Kurdish region. Their name means "those who face

death", and they were ready Well, the offensive is now

well under way. The Kurdish forces have been moving

forward steadily, and we've been We are now at a distance

of about 300 metres But this is really just the first

stage of what is expected It could take months

to drive the IS fighters First, they have to be flushed out

of the villages up ahead. There were only a handful

of IS remaining, but the Peshmerga Here's what happened when one

attacker approached Before he could reach them,

his vehicle exploded. Two more attackers were stopped

by air strikes from The Peshmerga say they are

fighting a global battle. They are not just fighting the Kurds

or the Shia, says this Colonel. "We want to defeat them

for everyone's sake." And this is the territory IS has

been forced to abandon. Any civilians were

already long gone. There was little enough resistance

here, but it will be a very The Kurds are supposed

to clear a path to the city, But as they drive out IS, they've

been adding to their territory, and what they have captured,

they intend to keep - just one of the ways

in which the battle for Mosul Orla Guerin, BBC News,

on the front line. With me now is Professor

Malcolm Chalmers, who's Why has this taken so long? It has

taken a long time since Mosul fell to Islamic State for the Iraqi army

to get its act together. It has taken a long time to reconstruct

that capability. And also the decision to take an Islamic State in

Anbar province to the west of Baghdad first also delayed the

offensive. It was not until Islamic State was cleared out all the major

Baghdad that they turned their Baghdad that they turned their

attention northwards to the centre of IS in Iraq, and indeed the only

city they still control. It has taken a while to build up that

capability. But now they are on a roll and there is a substantially

campaign. And there have been drones circling the city for months, even

now. The Americans know an awful lot now. The Americans know an awful lot

about how they are organised in that city. Is it significant that

President Obama does not have long in the White House. He would like to

have a result, he would like to see Islamic State out of Iraq. I don't

think the timing of the operation is about President Obama's remaining

term of office but clearly he would like this as part of his legacy. He

will throw everything at it. They are throwing everything they can. It

is very much like the operation in Libya. If you have competent ground

forces allied with West Junior Power, it is difficult for an

organisation like this to last forever. -- allied with Western air

power. And this is the first place were Islamic State emerged, and

noting their intentions. A lot of people are still asking, how is it

that Islamic State grew to be so powerful, so well armed, so

significant and difficult to defeat? We know it operates on many fronts

as well, not just an army. They do all kinds of terrorist acts and so

forth but why do they have such a difficult diary? There are multiple

reasons but in the case of northern Iraq it was a reaction against

Baghdad under President Maliki, which was deeply sectarian. When a

relatively small number, maybe 1000 IS militants moved into Mosul, the

Iraqi army fell apart because the officer had made political

appointments and local people thought this was an organisation

which was on the side of the Sunnis. They soon discovered the errors, as

the executions group, but they got their opportunity there and they

grabbed it. Professor Malcolm charmers, thank you for coming in

and speaking to us. Sir Cliff Richard has told a group

of MPs and peers he fears he will be "forever tainted"

after being wrongly accused of sex The singer was speaking at a meeting

organised as part of a campaign Steven Woolfe quits the party saying

it is in a death spiral. The RAF is helping Iraqi and Kurdish troops to

drive so-called Islamic State out of their last major stronghold in Iraq.

And the latest on Ben Needham. Police say he was probably killed in

an accident on the Greek island of Kos 25 years ago. In a moment, the

new chair of the child sex abuse enquiry tells the BBC about her

plans to get it back on track. It has been a big day for sport. Let's

get a full round-up from the BBC Sport Centre. Here is Olly Foster,

who is probably dry after watching the parade earlier.

They have been playing about 15 minutes at Anfield.

It's Liverpool against Manchester United.

Wayne Rooney has been dropped by United

18 minutes gone already between these fierce rivals but no goals and

not many chances. A bit of a not many chances. A bit of a

mismatch in the middle of the park. The chairman of the Football

Association, Greg Clarke, has faced MP's today

at a select committee hearing. He was questioned about allegations

of wrongdoing in the game that surfaced in the reports that led

to Sam Allardyce's sacking Here's our Sports News

Correspondent, Richard Conway. Greg Clark has only been in the

polls for a number of weeks but already he is having to get to grips

with some of the big issues that face the Football Association. Today

he was asked about Sam Allardyce's departure from the England job. Greg

Clark said that his conduct had been questionable and that perhaps the

next England manager, whoever that is in the longer term should not

have external commercial interests and should be solely focused on

winning. He also confirmed that Sam Allardyce had received a payoff that

it had to remain confidential and they would always obey the law, and

had consulted external lawyers before agreeing to make that

severance payment. In addition to that, he talked about homophobia

within football, and advised any current player thinking about coming

out and revealing themselves to be gay not to do it, believing that the

culture within the game is simply too vile, as he put it, to warrant

it. But it is something he is determined, he says, to stamp out. I

would be amazed if we had no gay players in the Premier League. So

would I. I personally feel ashamed that they do not feel safe to come

out. There is a very small minority of people who hurl vile abuse at

people who they perceive to be different. Our job is to stamp down

hard on that behaviour. I cannot give you enough of a commitment as

to how much I load that sort of behaviour. And the good news is that

we're not in denial. We may not have figured out how to crack it yet but

there is a deep loathing of that sort of behaviour football.

Sam Burgess will captain the England Rugby League team

in the Four Nations series that starts later this month.

It comes less than a year after his ill-fated spell

He played at the World Cup with England last year

but his was one of many below-par performances that saw the hosts

If you really want to run a fine comb through it, I take a lot of

positives out of my time in rugby union but I am aware that it was

written about and reported about, and people's opinions can be swayed.

There were skeleton articles written before games we played. It is funny

how a couple of articles can sway the nation's opinion. But you have

to understand that is the nature of the game.

Tens of thousands of people have lined the streets of Manchester

to cheer on Great Britain's Olympic and Paralympic teams,

Between them, the two teams won a record 214 medals,

both of them coming second in the medal tables.

London will stage another celebration tomorrow, hopefully with

better weather. After a summer spent basking

in the Rio sunshine, it seemed Manchester had got

the weather memo. With the fruits of their labour

around their necks, selfies were the order of the day

with the nation's stars. Before the parade,

a chance to reflect. It's been a hard four years,

training, injuries, it's been nice to stand on the podium and think,

yeah, it was all for that moment. But this is Britain,

of course - the weather The crowd in places

not as big as hoped. But those who made the effort had

a simple message for the athletes. It's been so hard to find your way

around and not see people that are so excited,

wearing all the flags. Supporters had clearly

done their maths. 147 medals had come home

with ParalympicsGB. Similarly, Team GB smashed

their Olympic records, beating their The first team ever to do that

straight after a home Games. For some, it was the first

experience of a parade Jessica Ennis-Hill retired last week

after winning heptathlon silver In my heart I knew this was the

right decision and the right time to do it but it is still very difficult

to actually make it public and say it.

The messages and the support I've had over the years has been

incredible, so I can't thank you all enough.

For some, those experiences are just beginning.

Five-time gold medallist Ellie Simmonds inspired GB's

youngest medallist - Ellie Robinson - and friends

El beat me in some of the races and I am not happy about that

but hopefully it will change in Tokyo, but I support my team-mates

and the whole of Paralympics GB and Olympics GB.

We are a great team and proud to be British.

Quick update from Anfield, still goalless between Liverpool and Man

United. More for you in the next hour.

It's taken 25 years but now police investigating

the disappearance in Greece of toddler Ben Needham believe

Speaking in Kos - where they've been carrying out an extensive search -

South Yorkshire Police say an accident remained "the most

probable cause" of Ben's disappearance.

Danny Savage recently spent time on Kos following

He was the little boy who vanished on a Greek

25 years on, police are now certain that Ben Needham was accidentally

For the last three weeks, British police have been conducting

a new search on Kos for any trace of him, working on the theory

that Ben was run over by a bulldozer and buried

It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result

of an accident near to the farmhouse here in Iraklis, where

But police have unearthed a vital item, indicating

It is our initial understanding that this item was in Ben's

possession at or around the time that he went missing.

The recovery of this item and its location further adds

to my belief that material was removed from the farmhouse

on or shortly after the day Ben disappeared.

The last time I saw Ben, he was playing just

Ben Needham's grandad telling reporters in 1991 about the last

The family searched for him for weeks.

I've just got to keep that hope, for Ben's sake, cos we love him

And so began a campaign that took over Kerry Needham's life,

but when police returned to Kos this time, she reluctantly accepted

I don't think the police would have given this information if it

The new leads in this investigation proved to be correct,

but this will shatter Ben Needham's family, who always hoped

It seems nearly certain now that Kerry Needham has endured 25

Fourteen teenage migrants from the so-called jungle camp

in Calais have arrived in the UK under a new Home Office fast-track

The children - aged between 14 and 17 - were taken to a visa

and immigration centre in Croydon where they were to be assessed

before being reunited with relatives already in Britain.

In her first interview, the new chair of the child sex enquiry has

told the BBC she has no intention of limiting its scope. Alexis Jay is

the fourth chair of the enquiry. She was speaking to consonants.

What went on here is one of the reasons for the public

So, this is what we are talking about.

He grew up in one of the houses making up St Leonard's

Children's Home in Essex, now occupied by families,

They used to pay visits to the children in the dormitories

But he is pessimistic that the public enquiry will ever

The way it is now, it is never going to come out to its final

10-15 years' time, ?150 million of taxpayer's money,

To find out most of the people you are going after are now dead.

Its chair, Professor Alexis Jay, is under pressure

Today, she gave her first interview in this job and this response.

We have no intention to propose that any aspect of the terms of reference

But we do intend to use different models and ways of working

That means fewer public hearings like this one.

The details yet to come but it may anger some groups.

The enquiry occupies a floor of this London office block and is currently

made up of 13 mini enquiries and reports, covering

all of these topics, from churches to children's homes.

To do all of this, the enquiry has to act a bit like a court,

questioning witnesses and establishing facts

but also like a therapist, supporting victims as they give

evidence and, like a think tank, developing policies for the future.

There's so much to do that some of its critics say it should

concentrate on the future, and not the past.

I treat with some scepticism the calls to forget the past

because only by understanding the lessons we can learn from that

and the possible feelings and cover-ups that might have taken

place in certain institutions will we go forward with confidence.

But the enquiry is increasingly haunted by its own past problems.

The resignation of Dame Lowell Goddard as chair in particular.

Tomorrow, Alexis Jay will be questioned by MPs about that.

The end of this enquiry - 2020 at least - still looks

Now time for a look at the weather. We have seen some heavy showers

today, but also some pleasant sunshine. What we will notice is it

will turn chillier, with a cold front spreading down from the

north-west. A band of heavy and squally showers making its way down

across England and Wales. Behind that, temperatures the will be

falling. We could see a touch of frost in some eastern glens of

Scotland by morning. Showers in the west and a stream of showers running

down into north-west England and they will become more widespread

later on in the day. There will be some sunshine in eastern Scotland

and southern and central areas. But it will feel chilly. Temperatures

eight or nine in Scotland and northern England. We keep the chilly

feeling this week with some patches of fog and frost as well.

Hello. This is BBC News.

Ukip's Steven Woolfe has quit the party.

The MEP ended up in hospital earlier this month after a row

I can no longer be a part of Ukip, not whilst it's like this,

there is a spiral that is bringing it down.

The Iraqi Army and Kurdish fighters advance towards Mosul at the start

of an offensive to recapture the city from the so-called

British detectives say they now believe that missing toddler

Ben Needham died in an accident 25 years ago on the Greek

And thousands of people line the streets of Manchester

for a victory parade in honour of Britain's Olympic