20/12/2015 BBC Weekend News

A senior Conservative urges David Cameron to allow Cabinet

ministers to campaign to leave the EU without having to resign.

The former Defence Secretary Liam Fox says he's already decided

We will all have to make up our minds, possibly

For me it is now very clear what direction we should take

But the former Prime Minister Sir John Major calls for the Cabinet

Also tonight: Votes are counted in Spain after an election that saw

the two main parties face an unprecedented challenge.

The ruling Conservatives win the most votes, but lose their overall

majority. The use of guns by police in England

and Wales is to be reviewed to see if the law gives

officers enough support. In Syria, we speak to

the British Islamist who says he's prepared to die fighting both

so-called Islamic State The BBC sports personality of the

year for 2015 is the incomparable Andy Murray. I work as hard as I can

every day to try and make you proud and I appreciate all the moat --

votes. Thank you very much. The former Conservative Defence

Secretary Liam Fox has urged David Cameron to allow Cabinet

members to campaign for the UK to leave the European Union

without having to resign. Dr Fox has confirmed

he'll be voting to leave But the Prime Minister's approach

to renegotiating Britain's EU membership received further support

today from one of his predecessors, Our Political Correspondent

Chris Mason reports. It's 43 years since Ted Heath signed

us up to what is now the EU. In the next two years, we will be

asked whether we want to stay. This former Prime Minister

says we should. If we vote to stay out,

then we are out and we will have to get on with it and

face the consequences. David Cameron has been in Brussels

trying to persuade fellow European leaders that the UK needs

a new deal with the EU. He knows that back home some

grumble, that they will say his What does the Prime Minister hoped

to achieve from the renegotiation. He wants to protect the powers of

Westminster and help businesses be more competitive by cutting

regulations, and prevent -- protect countries that kept the Roman

currencies and to stop migrants being claiming benefits. This is

something John Major endorses. It isn't common sense to sweep

into countries more people than we can provide

for if they are sick, Some in the cabinet,

like Iain Duncan Smith, are not

exactly big fans of the EU. Today, a former Cabinet colleague

said they should be able to keep their jobs and campaign

to leave, just as he already is. For me, two things had to happen

to want to stay in the EU. One was a fundamental

change in our relationship with the European Union,

but more importantly, a change in direction for the EU

itself, away from the concept of an ever-closer union,

and towards a much more independent and looser association

of sovereign states. At the last European referendum

in 1975, Labour Cabinet Ministers were allowed to campaign on both

sides of the debate. David Cameron has so far avoided

saying whether he will allow that Chris is in Westminster

for us tonight. Is the Prime Minister going to be

able to maintain the line he has kept? That is the big question.

Whilst at the moment he can make the argument and keep a big tent

approach around the Cabinet table over the EU, because the

renegotiation is continuing and all of the cabinet can acknowledge that

for the time being that is worth pursuing. Once the renegotiation is

complete and the Prime Minister, as he hopes, can make the argument that

we can stay in the EU, there is likely to be some around the Cabinet

table who think exactly the opposite, and it's not just Liam Fox

who is arguing that the Prime Minister should suspend Cabinet

responsibility. Graham Brady also made that argument and said it would

be morally right and catastrophically wrong to do the

opposite. It gives you some sense of just how much is at stake for the

Prime Minister in holding his party together on this. Chris, thank you.

Votes were cast today in Spain's most fiercely contested general

An anti-austerity party and a liberal party are challenging

the dominance of Spain's two traditional political forces

by fielding candidates across the country for the first time.

conservative Popular Party means the governing,

Has lost its overall majority despite getting the most votes.

Our correspondent Tom Burridge sent this report from Madrid.

A warning it contains flash photography.

Can this man remain Prime Minister of Spain? He and his conservative

popular party won the most votes, but the first time in three decades,

new parties have broken through and his party fell well short of the

majority of MPs it won four years ago. Since then, Spain has become a

more competent country after the crisis. The economy is growing now,

but unemployment is still 21% stop and in the eyes of many Spaniards,

the incumbent government has been damaged by corruption. So people

like Roberta, half American half Spanish, voted today for a new

Liberal party promising a change. I think this is a watershed day in the

young democracy of Spain. Now it needs to go up to the next level.

Cleaner, more democratic more participation, more transparency. We

have two new parties and it looks like they are to stay. Pablo

Iglesias leads the other new political force. His message is that

Spain has become more unequal country because of austerity has

support. -- has galvanised support. Tonight, after their first general

election, his supporters are celebrating. They are a new force

here, and they have a message for European leaders who directed

austerity in Spain. We are saying that we want to govern our own

country, not to listen to Brussels. We know that we are lower

economically than Brussels and Germany, but please listen to us.

These people want Europe to listen and the politics of their government

to change because so many Spaniards are worse off than they were four

years ago. Tonight, the vote is split, and traditional parties here

have been punished. The shell, the Prime Minister has, and said because

his Popular Party got the most votes they should form the government, but

on paper it will be difficult for them to do that which leaves open

the possibility of a different type of coalition of left-wing parties,

possibly with pro-independence Catalan parties and it would be

messy, but it will include the anti-austerity movement who have

risen to third in the election because of their anti-austerity

ticket against the policies and lamented by this party and directed

by Brussels. European leaders will be watching with interest and I.

Don't think that any Spanish party is Eurosceptic in the British sense.

But tonight people have voted against the way Europe has been run

over the course of the last few years.

David Cameron has ordered a review into the use of guns by police

The move follows the Paris attacks and will look at whether the law

gives enough support to officers having to make

Paris has led to a rethink. It's similar attacks were to also happen

here could our police protect us? The government wants more police

firearms training like you can see here. But are the officers legally

protected enough if they make a mistake? If an attack were to happen

in a busy city centre like this one it would come down to split-second

decisions. We understand that at the highest levels of the police there

are serious concerns that firearms officers simply do not have the

correct legal or political protection they would require if

something were to go wrong. Here is the protection as it stands. The

criminal Law act allows police to use reasonable force. The criminal

Justice act recognises the defence that an officer had an honest and

instinctive belief that opening fire was reasonable. The government

presumably hopes that the review will persuade armed police that

politicians are on their side, even if the law is not actually

rewritten. One former Met police firearms officer says the threat has

changed, as has the role of the police. The police are being pushed

towards the military role. So you then have to be somewhat less

delicate in your thinking and actions to enable them to do their

job to help to keep this country safe. But some caution that this

should not go too far. It's important to get the balance right.

It's got to be democratically decided. But we can't just have

shoot to kill without any kind of democratic involvement. These are

not new concerns. On the London Underground in 2005 officers killed

John Charles the Menez ez. Policing correctly suspected him of

committing terrorist offences. -- the police incorrectly suspected

him. In Paris they are clearing away the former floral tributes, but

concerns over how the police should approach these attacks remains just

as important as ever. Key to the government's strategy

to defeat so-called Islamic State in Syria are what it refers

to as 'moderate' rebels, which it claims number

70,000 fighters. But the shifting alliances

of Syria's war makes identifying The BBC has gained exclusive access

to one British Islamist who is in Syria fighting, he says,

against both President Assad and IS and prepared to carry out

suicide attacks against them. Our correspondent Quentin

Sommerville spoke to him Syria's war is moving closer.

Already British fighters have taken up arms. This man is English, a

Muslim convert, and he is fighting jihad. He calls himself a moderate

and says it is time for Western help. As fighters, we are willing to

cooperate with any other group that is going to help us against our

primary enemies. Our primary enemies being Isis and Bashar al-Assad's

army. He will not show his face and it is too dangerous for us to visit

that part of Syria. We spoke via the Internet. He says Britain needs to

embrace jihadists if the EIS group is to be defeated. What we need to

look at is that in terms of the peshmerga or the Kurdish groups

fighting against IS, there were British soldiers and American

soldiers who are fighting against IS as well. I am doing the same thing.

The army are not prepared to put on a suicide vest. They are not, but it

comes down to the same goal. They are fighting to stop this group,

Isis, and for example, if one of them got stuck in a situation where

they were surrounded by the enemy, maybe they would take a grenade,

open up the pin and blow himself up with the enemy. It is the same idea.

We are coming down to the same goals. More than 700 Brits have come

to Syria to fight with IS, but nobody knows how many have taken up

arms with other groups. One of the things that nearly all the foreign

fighters who come here to Cherie share -- to Syria share is that they

all say they experience something that changes them. They fight and

they kill, so how could it not? But what of the change do they bring

back home? Just how different are they less Chamakh if there are

70,000 moderate fighters here, they would be difficult to identify in

the wreckage of Syria, and the British security services warn that

friends on the battlefield could still be enemies at home. Britain

has joined an alliance of convenience here to destroy IS, but

in the fast moving allegiances of this war, those shared aims will be

unlikely to hold for long. Dozens of people are reported

to have been killed in an air attack on the rebel-held city of Idlib

in north west Syria, with some residents

blaming Russian planes. Rescue workers have been quoted

as saying that 43 people were known Russia has not confirmed whether it

carried out strikes in the area. An emergency landing

by an Air France plane in Kenya was caused by a false bomb alert,

according to the airline's chief. The incident is the fourth false

alarm the airline has had Our Paris Correspondent

Lucy Williamson reports. Just days before Christmas,

a reminder of just how suddenly Found in a toilet on board this

plane, a suspected bomb. It turned out to be a false alarm,

the device fashioned from a cardboard box

and a kitchen timer, but the fears it caused were enough

to divert the flight to Kenya The 459 passengers on board

reportedly unaware of what was going on until their feet

touched the ground. The plane went down, slowly, slowly,

so we just realised something The people of Air France

were just wonderful. They kept everybody

calm and really quiet. A replacement flight is expected

to bring the passengers back Several of them have reportedly been

questioned by police. At a press conference in Paris,

the Air France CEO described TRANSLATION: We are still waiting

to hear more about the legal implications from the Kenyan

authorities, and we are going to ask Ever since the November attacks,

extra security forces have patrolled airports, train stations and even

Christmas markets. This latest incident turned out to be a false

alarm, but here in Paris tonight it only reminds people of the very real

threats levelled against their country. Lucy Williamson, BBC News,

Paris. Alleged victims of child sexual

abuse by the former Labour MP, Lord Janner, have reacted angrily

to the news their testimony will no Lord Janner's death at the age of 87

yesterday means what's known as a "trial of the facts"

can't now take place. But it's expected the independent

inquiry into child sexual abuse chaired by Justice Lowell Goddard

will now consider the case. Here's our Home Affairs

Correspondent, Tom Symonds. Well-respected in the Jewish

community, and MP for 27 years, but if anything, the allegations

of child sexual abuse were growing in the years before

Lord Janner's death - claims that he sexually abused

at least nine children Because of his worsening

Alzheimer's disease, he made just one brief appearance

in court in the summer. A judge this month decided he wasn't

well enough to take part As a result, a jury wouldn't be able

to pass judgment on him, but it was going to consider

the facts of the case. His accusers do not know

when their testimony will be heard. This man says Lord Janner abused him

at a working man's club. I feel very let down

because we cannot have our Now, people will say it could be it

might not have happened. Another alleged victim wrote today,

"I have lived for nearly 50 years My only outlook was one day

to drag him into court." There is one final opportunity for

all of this to be fully examined. The Independent enquiry into child

sexual abuse based in this central London tower block is, next year I

understand, highly likely to add the Lord Janner allegations to its

examinations of child abuse over there in Westminster. Lord Janner

has always denied the allegations and his family do as well. Tom

Symons, BBC News, central London. With all the sport, here's

Karthi Gnanasegaram at the BBC Sport Andy Murray has won the BBC's

Sports Personality of the Year Award That was after leading Great Britain

to their first Davis Cup victory for 79 years. They also won the team of

the year. There is flash photography in this report. The winner is the

incomparable Andy Murray. Not for the first time, he was simply

unbeatable. A standing ovation for Andy Murray has, for the second time

in three years, he collected that famous trophy ahead of Kevin

Sinfield and Jessica Ennis. Not bad, as he joked, Thirimanne whose

personality has sometime been questioned. -- for a man. A friend

sent me a message with an article from a newspaper which said that

Andy Murray is duller than a weekend in Worthing. Which I thought was a

bit harsh to Worthing. This year 's show has attracted the usual array

of stars but also attracted controversy over the inclusion of

one of British board's most polarising figures. Tyson Fury

arrived to a flash of camera bulbs and outside a small group of

protesters, angered by his recent comments about women and

homosexuality. He finished fourth in the public vote after insisting in

his interview that he had never meant to cause offence. I've said a

lot of stuff in the past and none of it is with the intention is to hurt

anybody, it's all very tongue in cheek and fun and games. I'm not a

serious type of person. Everything is happy-go-lucky with Tyson Fury.

If I've said anything in the past that has hurt anybody, I apologise

to anyone who has been hurt. It's not my intention to do that. One of

the most emotional awards of the night was to age old Bailey

Matthews. He has cerebral palsy and this year completed a triathlon,

whilst in Belfast there was a popular choice for coach of the

year, the Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill. But the night

belonged to Andy Murray. A glittering end to another

extraordinary year. It's been a season of upsets

and unusual results Swansea and West Ham bucked that

trend with a 0-0 draw. But Watford beat Liverpool 3-0 today

and sit in seventh place They are just a point of the

Champions League places. The festive season has begun, and the sea

surprises goes on and on. Watford played host to this pre-Christmas

gathering and it was Liverpool who brought the gifts. Add Bogdan Lobont

able to get to grips with a corner and for Watford, immediately

something to cling onto -- unable to get to grips. For Jurgen Klopp and

his team, things were getting significantly worse. Ighalo proving

once again that he is one of the season's eye-catching players. The

second half, and second helpings. Only this time Ighalo could not

quite finish off. For Liverpool, chances were infrequent, unlike

here, never enough. Watford's run of big results continues as does the

goal-scoring of Ighalo. His second, their third, brought the latest

surprise in this extraordinary season. Sometimes the celebrations

and high spirits are such you cannot help joining in.

The Bayern Munich coach, Pep Guardiola, has confirmed

he is leaving the German Champions at the end of this season.

Guardiola has been heavily linked with a move to

Well, Guardiola's former team, Barcelona, today won

the Club World Cup beating River Plate 3-0.

It's Barcelona's fifth trophy of the year.

Rugby union, and Ulster have beaten four-time champions Toulouse

It's the first time Ulster have beaten them in France.

The 25-23 win keeps Ulster's hopes of reaching

Elsewhere Leicester beat Munster, but Exeter were defeated.

It's time for the news where you are.