01/04/2017 BBC Weekend News

The Government has said that Britain will defend the interests

of Gibraltar during the Brexit negotiations following warnings that

Spain is attempting to use the process to regain sovereignty

The EU has suggested that a Brexit deal won't cover Gibraltar

without a separate agreement between London and Madrid.

Here's our Political Correspondent, Matt Cole.

homes The imposing rock at the mouth of the Mediterranean has been in

British hands since 1713. Its fortified low case ten miles from

north Africa's coast's made it a key strategic base for Britain's

military, as well as home to 30,000 British subjects. The outpost shares

a border with Spain which has long sought to reclaim it, but this week,

Theresa May made it clear that would not happen as part of Brexit. But

yesterday, just two days after that Commons statement, the EU's draft

Brexit negotiating guidelines were issued, including this clause, which

said: No future agreements between the EU and the United Kingdom may

apply to Gibraltar without the kingdom of Spain's approval. Some

say Spain is trying to exploit Brexit. Every country looks to look

after its own interests and this is what Spain is now trying to do over

Gibraltar. It's absolutely wrong that any future Free Trade

Agreement, any future security, bilateral arrangements, or anything

else, should depend on Britain giving some concession to Madrid

over Gibraltar. In Gibraltar, officials are furious. We are not

going to be a pawn in Brexit, we want the culprits of Gibraltar. We

are the partner of the EU and we are the ones walking away, but we are

not responsible for that. Triggering the Article 50 process leaving for

Britain didn't include reference to Gibraltar and some critics say it

should have. What this perhaps underlines is the challenge facing

Britain as it begins negotiating as a single nation against 27, each of

which have their own vested interests. Matt Cole, BBC News.

Why do you think Spain are making this move? Some are thinking perhaps

they have seen an opportunity, the sequencing of the Brexit

negotiations, the announcing of it on Friday. The idea is that the

divorce talks come first, then the trade negotiations on a future trade

deal. Enit comes to the negotiations, Britain may have

leverage over spin because Spain wants to protect its interests, like

Santander for example. So Spain seeking to get the deal done on

Gibraltar, if it can, seeing an opportunity during the Brexit

divorce negotiations in that section as they deal with it. It remains as

only draft plans at the moment. Whether the rest of the EU will back

Spain in its defire for this and whether Britain will hold the line

and keep Gibraltar as it has done for 300 years.

Thousands of households on high incomes have received taxpayers'

money to buy a home according to official figures.

They reveal that the Help to Buy scheme which offers subsidies

to buyers has helped four thousand households in England

earning more than ?100,000 a year to purchase a home.

Our Business Correspondent Joe Lynam reports.

Introduced four years ago when the UK economy simply wasn't growing at

awe, the Help To Buy scheme aimed to stoke up house building and help

mostly first time buyers get on the ladder. Since then, 250,000 people

have bought property using the Help To Buy schemes. But research by

Labour soots that existing homeowners have wealthy households

have benefitted as well. Using official data research found that

around 4,000 households in England earning more than ?100,000 used the

Help To Buy equity loan scheme and 20,000 households used it even

though they weren't even first-time buyers. This scheme in place playing

valuable part in helping people get into the housing market for the

first time should only be there for first-time buyers and shouldn't be

there for people earning over ?100,000 a year, it just doesn't

make sense. The Help To Buy equity loan scheme offers buyers up to a

fifth of the cost of a new build home so they only need to provide a

5% deposit. The Government says almost 400,000 people have been

helped and 8.6 billion pounds has been promised for it in England

until 2021. When lenders now once again are not scared about falling

house prices and are prepared to advance money to people who want to

buy homes. The question is, has it now gone on for too long and is it

now arted officially pushing up house prices, particularly those of

new build homes? The fact that the Help To Buy scheme's helped existing

and sometimes wealthy households will worry some economists. They've

long seen concerns about consumer endebtedness, rising house prices

and savings at Savage an all-time record low. If the cost-of-living

continues to rise as it has in recent weeks and months, that'll

make the problem even worse, Joe linen, BBC News.

BBC News has learned that only 5% of prison staff in England and Wales

will get new pay allowances of up to ?5,000.

And many of those who qualify for the increase are already

The main opposition in Paraguay says a young activist has died

Several people were injured during running battles between the police

and protesters. Nottinghamshire police are searching

for a woman suspected It comes after a family court warned

that 42-year-old Samantha Baldwin From door-to-door, the police are

looking for clues in their search for the missing boys and their

mother. Samantha Baldwin, nine-year-old Louis Madge and

six-year-old Dylan disappeared. The same day Nottingham courts ordered

the boys should be removed from her care. The police are treating it as

an abduction inquiry. I would like to say to Samantha directly, maze do

the right thing and return the boys safely to the court. Secondly, to

anybody out there across the nation who has any information, however

small that may be, to contact us. That includes anyone who runs or

owns, bed-and-breakfasts, hotels, caravan parks, campsites, or holiday

lets, to check your registers, check who you've got occupying your

premises and please bear in mind the group could be staying under a

different name. The two boys have now been made

wards of court, their mother regarded as posing a risk of harm.

The police haven't ruled out the possibility someone else might be

involved in harbouring Samantha Baldwin. Two women arrested on

suspicion of assisting an offender have been bailed. Peter Harris, BBC

News. With all the sport, here's

John Watson at the BBC Sport Centre. The day's first match

in the Premier League, the lunchtime kick-off

between Liverppool and Everton in the Merseyside derby,

is under way at Anfield. The home side made the best possible

start, Sadio Mane scoring Everton then equalised through

Pennington after Williams failed to find the net with the first effort.

Coutinho scored for Liverpool with this sublime effort. It's currently

2-1 to Liverpool. A win for Liverpool would see them

pull level with second place Tottenham, who trail league leaders

Chelsea by ten points, Tiger Woods has pulled out of Golf's

first major of the year, The Masters, claiming

he is not tournament ready. After 15 months out following back

surgery, he returned to action Back spasms forced him

to pull out of a tournament in Dubai back in February,

and he's failed in his race to be fit enough to feature

at Augusta in America. Woods won the first of his 14

majors at the Masters, twenty years ago and says

there is no timetable Roger Federer won

a thrilling three-hour match against Nick Kyrgios

to set up a final against The victory means Federer has won 18

of 19 matches in 2017. The final is a repeat of this year's

Australian Open final Tomorrow it's the annual boat race.

History will be made with something that's rarely happened in 200 years

of competition. Adam Wild reports. This is a rivalry quite unlike any

other. Winning is everything. Losing unbearable. But at the heart of this

year's battle is a war. William War will become tonne third person in

history to race for both Cambridge and Oxford. It's a bit different but

it's a great honour, a very special race and I feel very privileged to

be part of it in this way. Warr was part of the losing Cambridge crew

back in 2015. Across the line go Oxford and they have won the 161th

university boat race. Now his academic studies have taken him over

to Oxford, a switch of boats that has apparently left some former

team-mates harbouring extra motivation. It hasn't been that

easy. Guys that I was very close with and I would speak to sort of

every week who I rode with at Cambridge, I barely speak to them

any more. Some guys said yes, that makes sense, you know, other guys

didn't respect the decision at all and said, you know, they really hope

I lose for Oxford. They completely disagreed with the decision. Still

this is of course a team sport, and with preparations almost over,

publicly at least, Cambridge are keen to concentrate on their own

boat. It's more about us winning than them losing, but it's sorts of

I guess maybe a hidden animosity between the two that occasionally

comes out. We are focussed on ourselves, I'm good friends with

Will who's in the Oxford crew, so there are no hard feelings, no

feelings really at all. Hard feelings or not, the undercurrent of

rivalry remains just below the surface. Winning is everything.

Whichever boat you're in. Adam Wild, BBC News. That race is live on BBC

One tomorrow afternoon. You can follow coverage of the early match

in the Premier League as well, Liverpool up against Everton still

leading 2-1 in the early kick off there, commentary on BBC Radio Five

Live at the moment. For now that, is all the sport, back to you.

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

The next news on BBC One is at 6.35; bye for now.

Good afternoon. It's the 1st April and appropriately we've got some

showers in the forecast. Not all doom and gloom because there is a

bit of sunshine out there as well. It's been wet so far for some