05/03/2017 BBC Weekend News

The Chancellor, Phillip Hammond, has said the Government will not

spend heavily in his budget on Wednesday, because it needs

"reserves in the tank" as it prepares to leave the EU.

Mr Hammond said his job was to ensure the economy was resilient.

He's also warned the EU that Britain will not slink off like a "wounded

animal" if it does not secure the Brexit deal it wants.

Our political correspondent, Susana Mendonca, reports.

Don't expect bundles of cash to pop out of his red box on Wednesday.

The Chancellor is not planning to go on

He is under pressure to put more money into the

NHS, to plug the growing funding gap in social

care for the elderly, and

to help small firms deal with rising business rates.

But he is batting off suggestions that there is a Brexit

If your bank increases your credit card

limit, I don't think you feel obliged to go out and spend every

I regard my job as Chancellor as making sure that our

economy is resilient, that we have reserves in the tank

so as we embark on the journey that we will be

taking over the next couple of years.

We are confident we have enough gas in the tank to see us

Labour says the Government does not understand

the pressures facing those on low income.

We believe that there is a squeeze on

living standards and we believe there should be a real living wage,

We can tackle tax evasion, tax avoidance, which is

on an industrial scale in this country.

End the tax cuts to the rich, as we have seen under the

Conservatives, and to the corporations and invest

One area that will receive some funding

19-year-olds come because the government wants to gear up Britain

for the skills the country will need in a post-Brexit world.

But what if that world does not include the kind

of EU trade deal the Chancellor is expecting Britain to get?

If there is anybody in the European Union who

thinks that if we don't do a deal with the European Union, if we don't

continue to work closely together Britain will simply slink off

We have a great fighting spirit and will fight back.

This is a Budget that will be under scrutiny

seen through the prism of Brexit negotiations that lie ahead.

Government forces in Iraq have renewed their assault

against Islamic State extremists in western Mosul after a two-day

They are reported to be within a few hundred metres

of government buildings near the old city.

of people have fled fled the fighting in

Many remain trapped within the city, others decided to flee. They arrive

in droves from western Mosul, one bus-load after another of civilians.

In just over two hours we saw more than five buses arriving here. Isis

were firing at us, most of the women died. We were all just running and

running, the mortars raining on our heads, until we got to the Army.

Some were grateful for the help of the army but these men said their

homes were hit by army shelling. Almost everyone had to walk through

the battlefield before reaching safety and getting on one of these

buses. After a long and dangerous journey on foot and under fire from

all sides, the refugees from western Mosul arrived here in Hamam al-Alil.

They have escaped with their lives but their misery is not yet over.

With such an unrelenting flow, the authorities can hardly keep up. And

does this count reaches full capacity, the new arrivals get on

the bus again, headed on the next stop on the journey of displacement.

An investigation has begun after a man's body was discovered

following a house fire in Hattersley in Greater Manchester.

Officers were called following reports of a blaze at ten

The victim has not yet been formally identified.

The energy company SSE has apologised after some customers

were quoted tens of thousands of pounds for a day's

The error was caused by malfunctioning smart meters

hugely overestimating the amount of energy usage.

The company has said an investigation is under way,

but that no customers will be charged for the erroneous amounts.

China's economy is predicted to slow again this year,

according to the country's Premier Li Keqiang.

Speaking at the Annual National People's Congress in Beijing,

Mr Li attributed the slow down to increasing global protectionism.

Chairman Mao would still recognise China's parliament -

rigid, authoritarian and unapologetically Communist.

But every year the delegates turn up to hear their leaders warn

of the increasingly complex challenges faced by a modern

Potential risks cannot be overlooked, Li Keqiang said,

warning that reforming China's economy is a process filled

with promise but also accompanied by great pain.

He spoke of the need to combat industrial overcapacity

and to reform what he called zombie enterprises, the bloated state-owned

sector producing far more coal and steel than the market needs.

Similar pledges in the past have proved hard to fulfil.

And he pledged to make China's skies blue again,

outlining further targets for emissions cuts.

Once again, these promises have been made before.

China's parliament has very little control over

the weighty issues of state, the big political and economic

decisions that have been made weeks in advance by the communist party

Premier Li also warned against growing protectionism,

a thinly veiled reference to the policies of the new US

president perhaps, and a reminder that as well as the economic risks

at home, China is facing challenges on the international stage too.

In boxing, Tony Bellew has upset the odds by beating David Haye

in their heavyweight fight at the O2 arena in London.

Haye dominated the first five rounds, but suffered an ankle injury

in the sixth and retired in the eleventh.

A memorial is to be built in northern France to honour

the British soldiers and sailors who died during the D-Day landings

The Government has said it will contribute ?21 million

towards the building of the monument, which will

on which the landings took place, as Robert Hall reports.

NEWSREEL: This is it. They are on the beach.

It was the largest operation of its kind ever mounted.

In June 1944, an estimated 21,000 members of the British Armed Forces

and Merchant Navy lost their lives as they fought alongside

their allies to gain a foothold in occupied Europe.

In the 70 years since the landings, veterans have returned

to the Normandy beaches to remember the fallen.

But there is no permanent memorial to the friends they lost.

Now veterans had been told the government will contribute

It will be erected in one of the French seaside towns that

On each beach, there was roughly 1,200 on each

plus God knows how many wounded, and seriously.

So you can imagine the sights on those beaches.

It was horrific. It was frightening.

But, at the same time, all we young lads of 18,

But, thank goodness, at last, there will be

Surviving veterans are delighted their campaign has been rewarded.

They and the government want the memorial to be completed in time

for the 75th anniversary of the landings, in June 2019.

You can see more on all of today's stories on the BBC News Channel.

The next news on BBC One is at 25 to six.

Hello, we will do the afternoon and indeed the rest of the week for you

in just a second but first I want to remind you of the temperature

profile across the British Isles in February, this is a snapshot for the

whole of the winter. The temperatures for the most part were

in Ireland of the spectrum. We have switched out of winter into spring

on the 1st of March and wouldn't you just know it, the