08/11/2017 Beyond 100 Days

You're watching

Beyond One Hundred Days.

There's more scandal

in Westminster and another cabinet

minister's future is in doubt.

A source tells the BBC Priti Patel

will resign rather than face

the sack over her meetings

with Israeli politicians.

She was thrown through the back door

for showdown with Theresa May. --

showing through.

This is the view right now of the

British Prime Minister's office -

when we get word on Ms Patel's

decision, we'll bring

it straight to you.

Democrats sweep elections in the US.

They win the governor's

race in Virginia -

is it the beginning of a backlash

against Donald Trump,

or just a blip?

President Trump campaigned on tough

talk against china -

today it's the latest stop

on his Asia tour.

But it may be President Xi

who holds the cards.

Also on the programme.

Hollywood star Kevin Spacey

faces a new allegation

of sexual misconduct -

we hear from an alleged victim.

The state that helped secure

the White House for Donald Trump -

how do the people of Wisconsin feel

a year after that

incredible election?

He's got an iron fist I think.

I mean he says what he wants to say

and he doesn't care.

He may make some people mad

but I like what he's doing.

Get in touch with us

using the hashtag.

'Beyond-One-Hundred-Days'

Hello and welcome -

I'm Katty Kay in Washington,

Christian Fraser is in London.

There is nothing 'strong

or stable' about the current

British government.

The Prime Minister lost her defence

secretary last week,

tonight

Mrs May may be forced to sack

another cabinet collegue,

the International Development

Secretary, Priti Patel.

Ms Patel was formally reprimanded,

on Monday, for a series of meetings

she held in Israel with senior

government officials

while on holiday, none of them

sanctioned by the Foreign Office.

Today she was hauled back

from Uganda, after news emerged

of other undisclosed meetings.

Our diplomatic editor

James Landale has the story.

This afternoon, Priti Patel

arrived back from Kenya,

avoiding the queues and cameras,

enjoying this perk of ministerial

office for perhaps the last time.

The International Development

Secretary had been summoned back

to London after more details had

emerged of her undisclosed meetings

while on holiday in Israel,

a secret diplomacy that opposition

parties believe broke

ministerial rules.

Well, what she's done it she has

shown us that she hasn't got

respect for the job itself,

she has breached the Ministerial

Code by not being transparent,

by not making sure that

all the meetings were listed,

and the Prime Minister should have

sacked her as soon as she found out

that she'd breached that code.

The controversy began when Ms Patel

went on holiday to Israel in August.

I heard some rumours

about what you have got up to,

checked them out, and then last

Friday I reported that Ms Patel had

held a number of meetings

with officials and charities

without telling the Foreign Office,

as would be expected.

That afternoon, she challenged my

report, telling the Guardian

that the Foreign Secretary,

Boris Johnson, did

know about the visit.

But it emerged on Monday

that she had been summoned

to Downing Street to be reprimanded

by the Prime Minister and reminded

of ministerial rules.

She issued a statement apologising,

and admitting there had

been 12 secret meetings,

including one with

Israel's Prime Minister.

Downing Street hoped

that would be that.

But on Tuesday morning,

I reported that after the trip,

Ms Patel suggested using British aid

money for Israeli army work

in the Golan Heights.

Then Ms Patel departed

on a prearranged trip as it emerged

that Downing Street had not known

about the plan to help the Israeli

army, then it emerged overnight that

Ms Patel had two further

meetings with senior

Israelis in September,

without following usual procedures,

without civil servants present.

After all this, it was no surprise

she was ordered back to London.

There were also reports that

Ms Patel had taken the controversial

step of visiting an Israeli army

field hospital in the Golan Heights,

an area not recognised

by the British Government.

So why did Priti Patel

act as she did?

Some MPs believe she simply

didn't realise what she

was doing was wrong.

Others say she doesn't

like officialdom and has

a history of doing things

without telling civil servants.

Others suspect she was pursuing her

own private foreign-policy.

Politics is not a game...

All this matters not just

because there is a risk of policy

confusion but because government

is based on Cabinet responsibility,

the idea that the men and women

around this table speak as one

and are accountable to Parliament

and the public as one.

Tonight, her ministerial colleagues

were hardly rushing to her defence.

Quick question?

Priti Patel, do you think

she should resign?

I'm going to leave it or not

to the Prime Minister,

thank you very much.

But some allies did come to her aid.

Priti should not resign,

she has clearly been foolish,

she is a workaholic,

she should have had officials

with her, they would have

briefed her, they would have

reported back and made sure

that the Foreign Office

knew what was happening.

She didn't do that,

it was an error of judgment,

but she has been a good

Secretary of State.

This evening, Priti Patel

was being driven to Westminster

to the learn her fate.

She has apologised for her

behaviour, but her apparent lack

of candour about her holiday

in Israel may mean she is coming

to the end of the ministerial road.

James Landale, BBC News.

Our chief political correspondent

Vicki Young has been

following today's developments

and joins us now from Westminster.

It has been a strange day. People

following her through the airport

and finally she has arrived at

Downing Street and it is rumoured

that the Prime Minister is not there

yet. You might have thought given

the pressure on Prime Minister but

they would want to get this out of

the way quickly.

Things have moved

on in the last few minutes. Theresa

May had another engagement, she came

back to Downing Street and they have

been in together for about 25

minutes. But Priti Patel we

understand has now just left Downing

Street by the back gate. We do not

know what the outcome of the meeting

has been. So they would have been

going through exactly what has come

about since their last face-to-face

meeting on Monday. The big question

is whether things that Priti Patel

did not tell the Prime Minister on

Monday which have now emerged and

have not been clarified. If so I

think she will no longer have her

job.

Of course she is a more junior

member of the Cabinet compared to

the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon

who went last week. But this cabinet

is finely balanced, there is a

balance between Brexiteers and

Remainer is and that is why it is

difficult for the Prime Minister

this week.

I think so and also

looking back, losing two cabinet

ministers in one week, that has not

happened since under Tony Blair in

1988 and then he had a huge

parliamentary majority, riding high

in the opinion polls. Theresa May

does not have that luxury so

anything like this which would

destabilise the cabinet is a problem

because they have so much else to

get on with. If you are Theresa May,

we spend most of her time talk about

Brexit and that is still going on

but we have not been discussing that

because of these other things. That

is not a good position for any

government to be in and especially

weakened by the general election

result and now struggling to

progress with Brexit. The bill

coming back to the Houses of

Parliament and having to get all

that through and she is having to

deal with wayward ministers.

While

we do not know exactly what her

future is and what the decision is

if one has been made. But if she was

to go is -- is there a difference

for Theresa May over whether she

resigns or is sacked?

Insiders to

know about these things say often

this is the wrangle but goes on,

whether you are allowed to resign or

whether you are sacked. You may know

quite often there is this exchange

of letters coming out afterwards and

it all sounds like it has been

rather friendly. In this

circumstance I think it is

difficult, she has been ordered back

Priti Patel, from an overseas trip.

Therefore everyone knows she has

been ordered back. It is then quite

hard to let her resign but from her

point of view if she wants to come

back and have a political career

then she would prefer to be in that

position. For Theresa May she might

want to look like she has got a grip

of the situation.

For the moment,

thank you. Just to show you some

pictures of Priti Patel who we

understand has just left... No, that

is Boris Johnson who is in the

United States at the moment. No, we

do not have those. Let's

There have been questions over

the future of the British

Foreign secretary too..

On Tuesday, Boris Johnson faced

calls to apologise, and even resign,

over comments he made

about a British woman who's

being held in prison in Iran.

But today he flew here to Washington

where he's been discussing

the Iran nuclear deal

with members of Congress.

Last month Donald Trump refused

to recertify the Iran nuclear deal -

placing the future of the agreement

largely in the hands of Congress.

This is pretty serious. Serious for

the Prime Minister but also in what

Priti Patel has done. When

government ministers go on these

visits to Israel, there would be all

kinds of prodigal in place, civil

servants, ambassadors, and agreed

government position. And also

security sweeps of the room and all

the security going with a visit like

that. Presumably she has gone there

perhaps using her medications and

all that put together puts a

politician in a potentially

precarious position, open to

blackmail. And that is why I think

it is seen as so bad by her Cabinet

colleagues. And also if you

considered the Prime Minister,

although she is trying to hang on to

a minister people think should have

been sacked on Monday, what preceded

it does it set for other ministers

if you're allowed to go almost

freelance to a country. That would

not set the best example. So quite a

serious case, perhaps more serious

than what Boris Johnson is accused

of doing.

Yes, in terms of what it

opens ministers up to potentially

but also more serious in terms of

how it reflects on the Prime

Minister. If this is what happens,

and it is clearly a breach of

protocol and standards, then why did

the Prime Minister not just sack her

immediately. Even if Priti Patel is

sacked tonight if there is a delay

and the story lingers for a few days

it already makes the Prime Minister

look weaker than she needs to do.

Always much better to get in front

of these things.

Exactly. Too weak

to sack a minister and too strong to

be got rid of herself. That is the

current predicament in British

politics. An extraordinary time.

Democrats in America

are smiling today -

and they haven't done much

of that this past year.

Last night's democratic victories

in local elections were the best

news they've had since Donald Trump

shattered their dreams,

defied expectations and won

the White House exactly

one year ago.

Two Governorships in two states

doesn't mean Democrats are by any

means back in charge -

but they feel a message

has been sent.

A message that opposition

to President Trump can

translate into actual votes.

In Virginia in the state

legislature they flipped 14

seats from red to blue,

the biggest Democratic

pick-up in over 100 years.

In New Jersey the Democrats

snatched the governorship

from the Republicans.

And they won a tight mayoral

race in New Hampshire.

We were in Virginia

yesterday for the election -

Larry Sabato is still there -

at the University of

Virginia's Center for Politics

in Charlottesville.

Thank you for joining us. Looking at

the Virginia race, was it a win for

the Democrats or a loss for Donald

Trump?

If resulted in a win for

Democrats but Donald

Trump, Donald Trump, the reasons why

they were the winners. That sums up

the race because the Democrat

running for governor is a delightful

man and highly intelligent but

pretty boring. There is no way he

could excite the crowd. No way he

could have excited this kind of

turnout which really was massive

compared to the last race for

governor. And the vast majority of

the increase with Democrats, they

showed up to vote unlike last member

when they left Hillary Clinton high

and dry.

Ed Gillespie ran a pretty

impressive campaign. In the last few

weeks of the campaign he tied

himself closely to President Trump

and his policies and ideology. But

he did not get many facts from the

president. This is what President

Trump tweeted from his Asia trip

this morning about Ed Gillespie. He

worked hard but did not embrace me

or what I stand for. How does that

help President Trump with

Republicans?

Well obviously it

doesn't. That was not a very

gracious tweet. I know that would

shock people but President Trump

could be ungracious! But also it is

false and that is what is important.

It is absolutely untrue that Ed

Gillespie did not tie himself to

Trump and his issues. In fact he was

out trumping President Trump,

stressing Confederate Monument and

football players taking the lead

during the national anthem and

immigration and Latino gangs even

more than Trump has done. With some

fishes television ads on which he

spent millions. It was saturated

coverage of these advertisements.

And it backfired. It produced more

democratic votes than additional

Republican votes by a factor of

about ten.

We will cut that

interview short. Because we've just

heard the British International

Development Secretary Priti Patel

has resigned. So we go back to Vicky

Young at Westminster. Of course it

was expected, do we have any other

details apart from the decision she

has taken?

Priti Patel was in there

for about 25 minutes and we now have

the official exchange of letters

which is customary between the Prime

Minister and Priti Patel. Just to

reduce what Priti Patel had disabled

but she talks about in recent days

they had been a number of reports

about her actions, she says I'm

sorry these have served as a

distraction from the work of the

Department for International

Development and the government as a

whole. As you know

from our discussions accept

the high standards expected of the

Secretary of State. She says her

actions were meant with the best of

intentions but she says they also

fell below the standards of

transparency and openness she

promoted and advocated. She offered

a full sum apology for what has

happened. And offered her

resignation. Clearly other things

have come to light since Monday when

the Prime Minister did not sack

which have led to her departure from

government. And the prime Minster

has replied saying she did the right

thing by resigning. So Priti Patel,

the second Cabinet minister to be

forced out of a job in just one

week.

So the Prime Minister no doubt

will be hoping that Downing Street

can draw a line under this and start

to move on from this incident. What

is the impact now on Theresa May?

Well the first thing is to find a

replacement, I'm not sure if we'll

get back tonight or tomorrow. She

will have to think of the make-up of

the Cabinet, whether she feels she

must replace her with leading

Brexiteer, whether she feels she has

to replace her with another or not.

But really just the fact that this

has been so destabilising, such a

huge distraction and not for the

same reason as former Defence

Secretary Michael Fallon, that was

allegations of sexual impropriety.

This is a different issue, showing a

lack of judgment as well however and

just the kind of thing Theresa May

could do about when she has so much

else on her plate including of

course those Brexit talks which

resume tomorrow.

And then her deputy

Damian Green under investigation

through the harassment thing going

through Parliament at the moment.

And criticism of Boris Johnson. Some

people have asked why she does not

just grasp the nettle and shake up

the Cabinet and have a reshuffle and

be done with it.

There was

speculation about whether she would

do a wider reshuffle to try to

reassert her authority after the

summer. I think the problem with

that, so many times, even in a

position of great strength as Tony

Blair did as Prime Minister, a

reshuffle can turn out to be

chaotic. They're not easy to do,

personalities involved, who do you

bring in or sack. You end up with

resentments. Last week Theresa May

was just replacing one person, the

Defence Secretary, and those

overlooked were unhappy. And it will

be sent through the prism of Brexit

auditory does. She may be tempted to

do it but it is not always the best

move. There are many conservatives

not currently in government, from

the younger generation if you like

to feel it is time for a clear out

and they deserve their chants about

whether Theresa May will be bold

enough to do that I'm not sure.

Thank you.

1.4 billion Chinese

aren't allowed to use

Twitter, but the President

of the United States is defying

a nation wide ban and tweeting

from inside the country.

The US delegation apparently brought

along special equipment so that

Mr Trump could get round China's

firewall and engage in his favourite

social media habit.

His rule breaking doesn't seem

to have dampened Chinese

determination to give the American

leader a red carpet welcome.

Mr Trump had tea with

Premier Xi Jinping, visited

the forbidden city and even shared

pictures of his grand

daughter, Arabella Kushner.

The carefully-choreographed images

of the visit being beamed out

from Beijing show a real power pair

- the 1st and 2nd most powerful

leaders in the world -

the question is, which one's which?

Earlier we spoke to former UN

ambassador Nicholas Burns.

Nicholas Burns, you've been pretty

critical of President Trump's

approach to American foreign policy,

but when it comes to the issue

of China as North Korea,

the White House is keen

to say the Chinese have signed

on to more sanctions,

the central Bank of China is now

putting pressure on

loans to North Korea.

They've stepped up what they are

doing in terms of helping

America over North Korea?

That is correct.

You have to grant

to President Trump.

He's been able to work,

apparently with Xi Jinping

to convince the Chinese

it is in their interest

to increase Chinese economic

pressure on North Korea.

So we have seen decisive steps

by China of the type they have not

taken before and that is encouraging

and that's what makes this

visit by President Trump

to Beijing so important,

at this stage of the

North Korean crisis.

And combined with the President's

speech in Seoul, you can feel

the pressure ratcheting down just

a little bit as diplomacy becomes

more the centrepiece.

I think that is where it should be.

Is that the message he will get

from Xi Jinping, do you think,

that you have to bring down

the temperature, stop

talking about destroying

the country entirely and buy

into a more regional approach?

I would guess that will

be the Chinese advice

to the United States.

In fact we have heard that

from the Chinese Foreign Ministry

spokesperson, pretty consistently,

over the last 60 days.

I think the Chinese probably

appreciate Rex Tillerson

the Secretary of State

and James Mattis, the Secretary

of Defence, their message,

because their message has been

of course we will defend

the United States, is attacked,

or Japan, or South Korea,

but we are really

focused on diplomacy.

I thought it was advantageous

for President Trump to parrot that

line yesterday and to be consistent

with what his Cabinet

secretaries have said,

opposed to the bombastic rhetoric

of the president over

the past two months.

Where do you think the power

balance lies at the moment

because the president is obviously

weakened at home and President Xi

has had quite a successful congress.

He has been elevated to a position

akin to where Mao was.

Where does the power balance

live this relationship?

I think it is a unique moment

in the history of the US -

China relationship,

going back to 1972.

There is no question Xi Jinping

is the most powerful Chinese leader

since Mao Zedong and there is no

question now that Donald Trump needs

the Chinese in order to convince

the North Koreans they ought

to negotiate this crisis and not end

up in a catastrophic conflict.

I think China has a lot

of influence to bring to bear.

On the other hand, the Chinese

want to see Donald Trump work

with them co-operatively

on North Korea, because they don't

want to see him go back to the very

difficult and aggressive statements

he made against China on trade,

during our campaign a year ago.

He has kind of put those

trade demands in abeyance

because he correctly perceives

North Korea is the more

important short-term issue,

so I think the influence works both

ways, but the United States

is dealing with a stronger China now

than we ever have been before.

To that end, does it

mean Donald Trump has

changed his strategy?

We heard strong rhetoric about China

during the campaign.

Does he now bet if he can

cultivate Mr Xi as an ally

and put their own differences

on bilateral trade to one side,

that is the best way to get

something out of the Chinese?

I think for the time

being President Trump has concluded

North Korea is the priority issue.

You see this remarkably positive

tweets by Donald Trump,

including today, after the visit

at the forbidden city the two

leaders took together

and I can't remember a time

when the United States president has

been so effusive in his praise

for the Chinese leader and so I do

think we will see North Korea

as the focus, but the reality

is trade is a major issue

for our business community,

particularly Chinese violations

of intellectual property.

I don't think it is realistic

if the President, President Trump,

can hold off impressing

the Chinese for ever.

Maybe he does that privately

in Beijing as North Korea

is the more public expression

of where these two governments are

trying to work together this week.

OK, Ambassador, Nick Burns,

thanks very much for joining us.

A really interesting point, that

they cannot hold off taking China to

task for the abuse of trade

practices and at some point they

must get on with it. What about

those people who supported President

Trump and the kind of rhetoric we

heard, what will they make of it

pretty much during the election

campaign when I went round those old

abandoned steel towns in places like

Ohio, the degree of knowledge about

China and Chinese trade practices

and the WTO was phenomenal, they

knew exactly what China was doing

and they knew exactly what they

wanted.

What they wanted was tariffs

on Chinese steel and steel dumping.

It was such an important issue for

these manufacturing workers that it

is hard to believe that the

president can put it off for much

longer. He has this comic is caught

between a rock and a hard place, he

needs China North Korea, he feels it

is not the time to label them a

currency manipulator and to be

tougher as they may be resistance to

that. But his base wants to see

action on China and it is a critical

issue for them. If they do not get

it, they will not be happy with

excuses.

Equally they will not want

him to retreat in the face of what

Pyongyang is doing.

I think they

would like both, they want tough

action on North Korea but what

matters in their daily lives is

trying -- is China and trade and not

so much North Korea.

This is Beyond 100

Days from the BBC.

Coming up for viewers on the BBC

News Channel and BBC World News -

the state that helped Donald Trump

win the White House -

a year on, do his supporters

have any regrets or are

they as fervent as ever?

We've the view from Wisconsin.

Speaking of - how's this for a view?

We hear from the astronaut who's

spent 12 months in space -

why he describes it

as a test of endurance?

That's still to come.

Once again Wednesday turned out not

to be a bad day for much of the

British Isles. Further north and

west sunshine was in short supply.

This frontal system coming in from

the Atlantic now bringing rain into

Scotland and eventually Northern

Ireland. Overnight we have the

prospect of thicker cloud moving

south east. Before that temperatures

really fall away, maybe even some

frost until the cloud just raises

temperatures later on in the night.

First thing on Thursday morning,

enough cloud still to produce some

rain across East Anglia and the

south-east. North of that

brightening up pretty quickly in the

morning across Cumbria and

Northumberland. For Northern Ireland

and the greater part of Scotland a

decent start to the day although

windy from the start and remaining

soul across the far north of

Scotland. Plenty of showers rattling

along on that westerly wind. Through

the afternoon those brighter skies

moving down through Wales and into

the Midlands. The very far south

probably stuck with the cloud

through most of the day. On Friday,

the very best of the sunshine North

and east. Still quite noticeably

windy from any. That front really

gets its act together Friday night

into Saturday. Once that has moved

away we open the floodgates to

really quite cold air. Pretty much

from the word go, single figure

temperatures at the weekend. In

spite of the presence of some

sunshine and some wintry showers on

the higher ground and even

accumulating snow in the voice of

Scotland. Sunday pretty similar.

This is Beyond 100 Days,

with me Katty Kay in Washington -

Christian Fraser's in London.

In the last half hour,

Britain's international

development minister,

Priti Patel, has resigned

after failing to disclose

all she knew about her unauthorised

meetings with Israeli leaders.

American voters deliver a forceful

rebuke to Donald Trump and his party

with Democrats winning the first

state-wide elections

since the President came to power.

Coming up in the next half hour -

Fresh allegations are levelled

at the Hollywood star Kevin Spacey -

we hear from an alleged victim.

Why this astronaut describes 12

months in space as an 'endurance' -

but the view certainly made up

for it.

Let us know your thoughts by using

#Beyond-One-Hundred-Days.

Another day, another crisis

in the British government.

This time the international

development minister, Priti Patel,

has resigned after failing

to disclose all she knew

about her unauthorised meetings

with Israeli leaders.

This morning the Prime Minister

Theresa May ordered her back

from a trip in Africa.

She's the latest Cabinet member

caught up in a whirlwind of scandals

rocking the government.

Let's go straight to Westminster

where our chief political

correspondent, Vicki Young,

can tell us more.

Have you got any more on this

decision in Downing Street over wide

to let her resign, rather than

having has sacked?

We don't. I

presume that Theresa May just

decided she would give her colleague

the dignity of resigning. In the

letter from Priti Patel, it's clear

she acknowledges what she's done

wrong, saying that her actions were

meant with the best of intentions

but they fell below the standards of

transparency and openness. She

offers a fulsome apology to the

Prime Minister and to the government

and offers her resignation. I guess,

having had so long to think about it

on the plane, Priti Patel decided

that was what she was going to do.

The response from Theresa May is

interesting, pointing out that work

has to be done formally, though

Britain and Israel are strong

allies. That is why you have a

system in place, why you have the

civil service, and why meetings like

that are documented, so that it is

transparent, so that everyone knows

who ministers are giving access to.

She says, I accept your apology and

I welcome your clarification over

your trip to Israel over the summer.

Now that's further details have come

to light, it is right that you have

decided to resign. So clear that she

would have been sacked if she hadn't

resigned.

Well, today, the Jewish Chronicle,

quoting two sources,

reported that number ten WAS told

about Ms Patel's meeting -

in August.

Just before Priti Patel resigned,

we talked to Stephen Pollard -

Editor of the Jewish Chronicle -

and to the political columnist

with the Sun newspaper

Trevor Kavanagh.

Downing Street aren't annoying --

are denying your report today. Why

are you so confident in its?

I have

to separate sources who are

completely separate and are

unconnected. Both have told me

pretty much exactly the same thing,

which is that at a meeting before

the UN General Assembly in

September, Priti Patel and Theresa

May discussed one of the ideas that

Priti Patel had in turn discussed

with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin

Netanyahu when she met him in August

in Israel, and there was reference

made to wait trip to Israel. Downing

Street are insisting that the first

that anyone knew about that meeting

was Friday of last week. My two

separate sources tell me that that's

simply not the case. I have another

aspect of the story, which I now

have a third source four, which is

that the list that Priti Patel

produced on Monday of her 12

unauthorised meetings in Israel,

that it was apparently not full

disclosure, and we learned last

night there were two other meetings,

one of which was an official from

the Israeli Foreign Ministry who she

met in New York when they were both

there for the UN General Assembly.

The fact that Priti Patel supposedly

didn't tell Number 10 about that

meeting is what has done for her

today. I have been told by my

original to sources, but also by a

third source, who has contacted me

since this was made public, a very

reliable source, to confirm that

it's true that Priti Patel did tell

Number 10 on Monday about that extra

meeting, Number 10 asked her, told

her, not to put that extra meeting

in her statement, for whatever

reason they may have.

Mr pollard,

this all sounds like an airport

political thriller. What is your

sense of the motivation for ten

Downing Street telling Priti Patel

that those meetings shouldn't

mentioned to anybody.

RB honest, I

haven't got a clue. It bonkers. I'm

not making allegations. I'm not

talking about conspiracies. All I'm

doing is reporting what at first to

sources gave me about this whole

affair, and which since I went

public today, a third source has now

confirmed.

Let's turn to Trevor

Kavanagh. This is a mysterious

kettle of fish. Why would Priti

Patel need to meet so many Israelis

in the first place?

She was being

aided and abetted in this by one of

the Tory party's biggest donors,

Lord Pollock, who has donated

something like nearly half a million

pounds to the Tory coffers. She is

very ambitious, as a would-be leader

of the party, so you could add two

and two together and make a link.

But it's inexplicable, as Stephen

pollard has suggested, that any of

this has been done at all and has

been done in the way it has.

Inexplicable. I think the government

is reeling from the fact they cannot

explain it. The cabinet is in

disarray. The Prime Minister looks

weak. How serious is this for the

Prime Minister it couldn't be more

serious, if indeed Stephen pollard's

sources are accurate, and I would

trust the sources because they would

be matchless. If there has been a

cover-up, it takes this story beyond

the fact that Priti Patel has been

going to Israel and having secretive

meetings. It could be the beginning

of the end if that turned out to be

the case, but we are a long way of

knowing for sure about that.

We talk

a lot on this programme about fake

news. The spectators says this is

like fake government. In a way, her

weakness is her strength, because

they cannot get rid of her, and at

the same time, they cannot have an

election. They cannot have a

leadership election, because it

would be six weeks in the middle of

the Brexit negotiations. They can't

have a general election because I

suspect Labour would sweep to power.

So they will limp on for as long as

they can with a crippled Prime

Minister and a crippled government.

Some people would say that losing

one minister is unfortunate but

losing two is careless in the space

of a week. We also have to other

ministers who are under a cloud. At

some point you have to say, the buck

stops with the boss, and maybe she

isn't very good about making

decisions about who to put in power.

Yes it's about making a fine balance

between the Brexiteers and the

remainers. The committee for exiting

the European Union went over to

Brussels to meet Michel Barnier, the

chief negotiator from the EU. You

have the other countries in the EU

sitting down together to talk about

the relationship. Is the Prime

Minister and is hard government

going to be in place when we get to

the end of this process? It

complicates the whole thing, and

it's the last thing the Prime

Minister wants to be concentrating

on now.

I think we said that strong

and stable is not the word for

anything right now.

The Hollywood actor and theatre

director Kevin Spacey

is facing fresh allegations

of sexual misconduct tonight.

The US journalist Heather Unruh has

told reporters that her son

was sexually assualted

by Mr Spacey last year.

Mr Spacey has not responded

to any of the allegations.

The actors union Equity told the BBC

that the problems of sexual

harrasment were endemic

in the industry.

Our Special correspondent

Lucy Manning reports.

In July 2016, actor Kevin Spacey

sexually assaulted my son.

The tears of a mother in Boston

today, revealing what she claimed

happened to her son.

The victim, my son, was a starstruck

straight 18-year-old young man,

who had no idea that the famous

actor was an alleged sexual

predator, or that he was about to

become his next victim.

Journalist Heather Unruh's

tweet about Kevin Spacey

last month triggered

all the allegations against him.

Today, she went public and

the police are now investigating.

To Kevin Spacey, I want to say this.

Shame on you for what

you did to my son.

The BBC has interviewed

more alleged victims.

Chris Nixon did not have to speak

out, but wanted to make clear

Kevin Spacey's behaviour was part

of a pattern.

It is not just sleazy,

it is predatorial.

He did what he did, because he knew

he'd get away with it.

The one-time barman met Kevin Spacey

in London in 2007, when he alleges

the actor groped him.

Kevin Spacey sat down

on the sofa next to me,

asked if it was my girlfriend,

then reached over and grabbed...

He then describes a sexually

explicit action and words.

A couple of weeks after

the party at his place,

he was in the bar, reached forward,

grabbed my waistband and said

something to the effect of,

if I can make it up to you,

let me make it up to you.

So I went back upstairs,

was standing behind the bar

thinking, what the hell just

happened again with that

I was in work so I could not

make a scene about it.

I told him in no uncertain

terms where he could go.

The BBC also spoke to an American

film-maker who did not

want to be fully identified.

In the 1990s, he was a junior

crew member on a film

Kevin Spacey directed.

He claims the actor sexually

harassed him, something he mentioned

to another man working on the film.

He said, you too, how?

I said, do you mean, you too?

He said, he was touching

you and flirting with you?

I said, yeah, it was awful.

He said, yeah, he did that to me.

The first week we were all out

at a bar and he grabbed my butt

and I turned round and I said

to him, Kevin, if you ever do that

again, I will kick your ass,

so leave me alone.

In the UK, the actors' union

says sexual harassment

in the industry is endemic.

Can those at the old Vic

theatre, where Kevin Spacey

worked for 11 years,

really have been in the dark?

The theatre initially said it had no

complaints against him,

but it has now appointed external

advisers to investigate.

Kevin Spacey has not responded

to any of the latest allegations.

Previously, he said he needed

to examine his own behaviour.

Lucy Manning, BBC News.

Here's a confession -

I am not one of those people

who has ever dreamed

of being an astronaut.

Actually the idea terrifies me.

But I am totally in awe of anyone

brave enough to lock themselves

in a tin can and float out

into thin air.

Which is exactly what

astronaut Scott Kelly did -

not just for a week or even

a month, but for 340 days.

Kelly went for a scientific mission

to measure what impact

being in space for that long

would have on the human body.

What made it particularly

compelling for the researchers

is that he has a twin,

who stayed here on earth

so the scientists

could do comparisons.

Scott is back from space

and he's written a book

about it called Endurance.

I'm an astronaut.

We go to space, and I think if we're

going to go to Mars some day,

we have to know how to live and work

in space for longer periods of time.

The space station is

the perfect place to do that.

We do a lot of work.

We wake up at like 6am.

The workdays are kind of broken up

into three general activities.

Either you do a scientific

experiment or you're repairing

hardware that broke,

or you're just kind of generally

maintaining the space station -

stuff we need to do on a regular

basis to keep it operating.

And also you do a lot

of exercise in space.

So I am not a scientist.

I was a scientific subject.

I was also the operator

of a lot of experiments.

I like to think that,

years from now, when we look

at the whole suite of experiments

we did, whether it was research

that was Mischa and I,

about us being in space for a year,

or this comparative study

with my brother, I hope

that we learn things that will allow

us to venture to Mars some day.

Our planet is incredibly beautiful,

brilliant blue in most places.

You get the sense that we are lucky

to have this incredible

place that we call home,

but at the same time, certain

parts of the Earth are almost

always covered in pollution.

The atmosphere looks extremely

fragile, so having this privileged

position to look at our planet...

It changes you.

Well, I think I learned that I can

deal with a lot of hardship

and still be able to function,

but I also think, at the same time,

I was changed by just having this

privileged view of the planet.

Astronauts call it

"the overview effect",

or this orbital perspective,

when you look at Earth,

very peaceful-looking,

very beautiful, but often not,

and I think it makes you more

empathetic to the human

condition and the condition

of our planet, perhaps.

Not convinced?

The review is not

quite so shabby. I'm just not a very

brave person.

This is Beyond 100 Days.

Still to come - Why these

Wisconsinites don't mind

if President Trump's a trifle

unfiltered - we hear

from those who voted for him,

a year after the US election.

The trial has begun of a woman

charged with murdering her

ex-boyfriend following

a suspected acid attack.

The jury has heard Mark Van Dongen

was left paralysed from the neck

down and lost his left leg,

ear and eye.

He ended his life in a euthanasia

clinic 15 months later

saying he couldn't bear

the pain any longer.

He died in Belgium at

the start of this year -

more than a year after attack

took place in Bristol.

Berlinah Wallace denies murder.

Our correspondent Jon Kay reports

from the trial in Bristol.

Together for five years.

Mark van Dongen, who was an engineer

from Holland, and Berlinah Wallace,

a fashion student from South Africa.

They lived in this Bristol flat.

The prosecution claims

that she bought a bottle

of sulphuric acid on the internet

and threw it over him

as he lay in bed.

He spent more than

a year in hospital.

Paralysed from the neck down,

he lost a leg and an eye,

and was said to be

grotesquely scarred.

The court heard he screamed

when he saw himself in a mirror.

Before the jury was shown videos

of Mark van Dongen speaking

to police, they were warned

they might be shocked

and upset by it.

In the footage, they saw

the engineer propped

up in a hospital bed,

struggling to speak, with scars

across his face and his upper body.

He told a police officer that he'd

woken up that night to see

to see Berlinah Wallace

standing there laughing.

He claimed she was jealous

about another woman he'd started

to see, and that she threw the acid

at him saying, "If I can't

have you, no one will."

The 48-year-old denies murder

and throwing a corrosive fluid.

The jury was told she thought

it was a glass of water,

and her barrister asked them

to keep an open mind.

The prosecution said,

after 15 months, Mark van Dongen

returned to his family in Belgium

and asked to die at a legal

euthanasia clinic.

The prosecution argues he was driven

to that point by his suffering,

and that Berlinah Wallace

is therefore guilty of murder.

The trial continues.

Jon Kay, BBC News.

You're watching Beyond 100 Days...

One year ago today we all watched

in amazement as the US

election results rolled

in - upending predictions.

Nowhere more so than in Wisconsin,

where polls had predicted a clear

win for Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump won the state

by just 22,000 votes.

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan

was at the Trump victory party

in New York on election night,

and remembers that winning Wisconsin

was one of the biggest

upsets of the evening.

Now, a year on, she's gone

there to ask his supporters

what they feel now.

Welcome to Wisconsin -

Trump country now.

Hillary Clinton never

even held a rally here -

mistakenly believing this

was her firewall.

Donald Trump's victory

in Wisconsin was a stunning one.

He turned the conventional wisdom

that the upper midwest

was in the bag for Hillary Clinton

right on its head.

His message of economic populism,

strong borders and national revival

resonated with voters here.

So, one year on, how do

they feel he's doing?

At 4:30am, Mike is up milking

the cows on his wife's

family farm in Marshfield.

A one-time Obama voter,

Mike found Donald Trump's

outsider status appealing,

and he's got no regrets.

I think pretty good,

because my portfolio

on the stock market has been

hitting an all-time high.

He's got an iron fist, I think,

I mean, he says what he wants

to say and doesn't care.

He might make some people mad,

but I like what he's doing.

For more than 100 years,

this farm has been in the family

of Mike's wife, Melissa,

who grew up feeding calves here.

This mother of four voted for Obama,

but was attracted by Donald Trump's

stance on immigration.

He is trying to put the wall up.

I think he's defeating Isis.

Health care, I think, though,

that's kind of a touchy subject.

I feel really good about what he's

doing and I'm glad I voted for him.

I sometimes wish he would maybe

keep his mouth shut on Twitter.

There's also concern on the farm

about rising health care costs.

The entire family switched from

Obama to voting for Donald Trump.

Now, Melissa's mother Julianne

worries that he's ended the payments

which kept her insurance costs down.

Your insurance has

more than doubled?

Yes.

And who do you blame for that?

I don't really know

the answer to that.

Because the subsidies

were taken away, I guess

I have to blame Trump,

because he was

the one who took those

subsidies and put them

on the insurance companies.

Over in one of the wealthiest parts

of Wisconsin, I met Robin Moore,

a wine consultant

and leading local Republican.

She says Donald Trump

and his hyperactive Twitter account

are getting his views across.

This is unfiltered.

It's the unfiltered voice

of our President, and so,

on the one hand, yes,

there's times I think, you know,

the 3am thing should

probably not happen,

but for the most part I think he has

a message that's resonating

with people across the country

and across winds content.

Back on the farm it's not

the Twitter feed that Donald Trump's

record that will determine

whether the family

votes for him again.

Given his slim margin of victory

here, he can't afford

to lose much support.

Laura Trevelyan,

BBC News, Wisconsin.

Our North America Correspondent,

Nick Bryant, has covered this

presidency from the start.

One year on from that election Day,

which I think neither of us will

ever forget, what surprises you

about the Trump administration?

The

thing that has surprised me the most

is that he has changed the

presidency more than the presidency

has changed him. Right from

Inauguration Day, that kind of

shrill and dark rhetoric that

surprised many of us. Another

indication later that night, at the

inauguration Ball, where he danced

to Frank Sinatra's my way. It has

been that sort of presidency. He

asked the crowd, shall I keep using

Twitter? That has been a sign of

this kind of anti-presidency. People

didn't vote for orthodoxy, and

Donald Trump knows that, and he has

delivered unorthodox.

You wrote a

piece called the time when America

stopped becoming great. It is a very

long piece! It's great, but you

trace back Donald Trump's victory a

year ago to the end of the Cold War,

post-Reagan era in America. Why?

I

came here in 1984, the resurgence

here. The Iranian hostage crisis

finally came to an end. It was the

Olympics. Americans finally started

believing in themselves again. I

think you can divide the intervening

period into two 16 year chunks.

After, it was as if America caught a

bug, 16 years of dissolution and

decline, you had the 2000 election,

9/11, the financial crash in 2008.

Donald Trump was a product of a

dissonance between those two periods

of American life, one of great

triumph and one of national decline.

He exploited that in 2016.

Christian, this is your home work! .

It will get me to sleet tonight!

Let's look at the year. I'm sure he

would want more achievements than he

has. Realistically, what has he done

that good? Anything?

Legislatively,

there isn't much to talk about.

Repealing or replacing Obamacare

hasn't happened. Infrastructure

hasn't happened. Tax reform hasn't

happened yet and will be a struggle

to get through. That's failing has

been made doubly noticeable because

we haven't got a divided government

in America at the moment. Rarely, we

have a Republican party that

controls the White House, the

Sennett and the upper house. He

hasn't been able to do that. Donald

Trump would point to the stock

market and say that unemployment is

at a 17 year low. He would say

America is feared on the world stage

by its adversaries and isn't taken

for granted any more by its allies.

He would say that's a record of

accomplishment, but historically

he's got the worst approval ratings

of any first-term president at this

stage, around 35%. Amongst

Republicans, his approval rating is

around 79%, and if the election were

held again today, would you bet

against him? In the rust belt, those

three key states, Wisconsin,

Michigan and Pennsylvania, there

there is support for him there.

Guess what Barack Obama was doing

today? Turning up for jury duty. You

can be president of the United

States but you still need to fulfil

your civic duty. His salary will be

around $17 per hour.